Laika’s travis knight to direct stop-motion film ‘the night gardener’ written by ‘ozark’s bill dubuque

Laika‘s CEO and President Travis Knight (_Kubo and the Two Strings_) is gearing up to direct the stop-motion animated feature_ The Night Gardener_, written by _Ozark_ co-creator Bill

Dubuque, for his storied Hillsboro, Oregon studio. (Check out a film still unveiled by Laika below.) The film based on Dubuque’s original idea is billed as a gritty neo-noir folktale

centered on a young man in rural Missouri, who’s fighting to keep his family together in the wake of a tragedy. Pic will paint an unflinching portrait of sacrifice, self-reliance and

revenge. News of the new Laika film comes with the studio currently in production on _Wildwood_, the first film set in its hometown of Portland, Oregon. Knight is directing the animated

film, based on the bestselling fantasy novel written by Colin Meloy—the multi-hyphenate best known as the lead singer and songwriter for the rock group The Decemberists. “_The Night

Gardener_ is a beautiful and timeless story that quickens the pulse as often as it breaks the heart,” said Knight. “Bill is a masterful storyteller. He’s crafted a lyrical world layered with

complex characters, provocative ideas, and keenly felt emotion. It’s gonna be one helluva movie.” WATCH ON DEADLINE “I’m delighted that Travis Knight saw in _The Night Gardener_ a story

worthy of the time intensive process and collective talent of LAIKA’s in-house artisans,” added Dubuque. “LAIKA’s creativity and dedication to detail is, in my opinion, as close as one can

come to conjuring storytelling magic.” Knight founded Laika in 2005, seeing each of the studio’s five features to date—_Coraline_ (2009), _ParaNorman_ (2012), _The Boxtrolls _(2014), _Kubo 

_(2016) and _Missing Link _(2019)—land an Oscar nominations for Best Animated Feature. In addition to _Kubo_ and _Wildwood_, Knight directed _Bumblebee_ for Paramount Pictures. Also in the

works at his studio is its first live-action film—an adaptation of John Brownlow’s upcoming debut novel, _Seventeen_. Dubuque co-wrote the Warner Bros. feature _The Judge_ starring Robert

Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall, for which the latter earned a Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He also penned _The Accountant_, starring Ben Affleck, and is the co-creator, writer

and executive producer of Netflix’ hit show _Ozark_, which will unveil its final set of episodes on April 29. Prior to his career in screenwriting, Dubuque worked as a headhunter for over a

decade, seeing that experience come in handy while writing the feature _A Family Man, _starring Gerard Butler and Willem Dafoe. Knight is represented by CAA; Dubuque by Zero Gravity

Management, CAA and Bloom Hergott Diemer.