Victor Maldonado and Alfredo Torres, the Annie Award-winning duo together known as Headless, are teaming with Laika to create their next movie. The Oregon-based studio has only released five feature films since 2009, and they seem to be looking to ramp up those productions, with two Travis Knight films in development and some new hires coming on board. Headless, best known for their work on Love + Robots, also worked on Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia, which is where they earned their Annie. In 2007, they also earned Best Animated Feature at the Goya Awards (Spain’s equivalent of the Oscars) for their movie Nocturna.
At the same time, Laika also brought Pete Candeland, the animation director behind the Gorillaz music videos and The Beatles: Rock Band video game cinematic, on board. Candeland is currently working on an animated horror movie about Frankenstein with screenwriters Patrick Melton & Marcus Dunstan (Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark) and Love, Death + Robots‘s Axis Studios.
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“Animation works best in extremes. It has been gradually growing a broader audience, moving like No-Face from Spirited Away, gathering fans with cutting-edge music videos, iconic games and breakthrough shows like Arcane and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Next: Horror,” Candeland said when that movie (titled Gods and Monsters vol. 1: The Death of Victor Frankenstein) was announced. “I want the gamers to put down their controllers, music lovers to see the potential of sound and vision in a frightening new way, and horror fans to shout why haven’t we seen this before? I want all of us on the edge of our seats, consumed by the thrill-ride that is Gods and Monsters.”
There are no details yet on what projects Laika hopes to develop with Candeland or Headless, per Deadline, who first reported the signings. The studio’s next film, Travis Knight’s Wildwood, has a planned 2025 release date. Prior Laika productions include Coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings, and ParaNorman. The studio was founded in 2005 by Knight, who serves as President and CEO, and has been celebrated as creating consistently high-quality animation.
Knight, the son of Nike founder Phil Knight, has also taken time away from Laika in recent year to direct Bumblebee, the best-reviewed Transformers movie since the start of the franchise.
Knight’s Wildwood is based on a series of books by Colin Meloy and illustrator Carson Ellis. The studio is also working on Seventeen, based on the thriller from novelist and screenwriter John Brownlow; and The Night Gardener, an original story from Ozark creator Bill Dubuque.
