Bumblebee Director and LAIKA Boss Travis Knight Gets Major Role With the Academy Museum
Travis Knight, the director of Transformers spinoff Bumblebee and CEO of the stop-motion animation studio Laika, has been appointed to theAcademy Museum of Motion Pictures Board of Trustees. The Board serves to help guide the film industry toward practices that are good for art, business, industry workers, and legal compliance. Besides Knight, the Board of Trustees re-elected current members Patricia Bellinger Balzer, Arnaud Boetsch, Olivier de Givenchy, Ray Halbritter, Ryan Murphy, Regina Scully for additional three-year terms, which will end on June 30, 2026. The museum also announced the appointment of film producer Effie T. Brown, former chair of the Academy Museum Inclusion Advisory Committee, as an honorary trustee.
Knight, who also directed the acclaimed movie Kubo and the Two Strings, is helping oversee upcoming projects for Laika, including 2025's Wildwood, which he is expected to direct. The studio has recently branched out into live-action films, with a planned movie called Seventeen (little is yet known about that movie). Also in the works is the animated The Night Gardener.
Knight is the son of Nike founder Philip Knight, himself the subject of Ben Affleck's recent movie Air.
Ted Sarandos, board chair and co-CEO of Netflix, released a statement welcoming both Knight and Brown, saying, "We are thrilled to welcome Travis Knight to the Board of Trustees. He is an extraordinary leader who has already made such an impact on the industry at large through his groundbreaking advancements in the art of stop-motion animation and live-action moviemaking. We are also proud to recognize Effie T. Brown, a talented producer who has been a crucial voice for diversity and inclusion at the museum, with this lifetime honorary position."
"As the governing body of the Academy Museum, the Board leads the museum toward a sustainable future by adopting sound, ethical, and legal governance and financial management policies, in addition to securing adequate resources to advance the museum's mission. Knight and Brown will help continue the success of the museum and its social impact for audiences worldwide," the Board of Trustees said their own statement.