Dune screenwriter Jon Spaihts is set to make directorial debut on a sci-fi for Laika’s live-action division

Deadline is reporting that Jon Spaihts, who worked with Denis Villeneuve on the screenplays for the Dune films and penned the Chris Pratt/Jennifer Lawrence space romance drama Passengers, will be making his directorial debut on a film that he will also write. It is a yet-to-be-titled sci-fi thriller and will be produced by Laika’s live-action division. The Oregon-based studio is usually known for their animation work and has been nominated for a number of Academy Awards. Their specialty also lies predominantly on stop-motion animation.

While details are scant at the moment, per Deadline, the new sci-fi thriller will tell “the tale of a woman investigating a mystery that took place during a week she cannot remember.” Spaihts spoke of his directorial debut in a statement that said, “This is an original passion project I’ve been eager to turn to for a while, and I couldn’t ask for better partners. LAIKA has a clear creative vision, and a tradition of meticulous, bespoke storytelling that suits this project very well.”

Matt Levin, Laika’s President, Live Action Film & Series, also made the statement that studio “has long admired Jon’s iconic work as a screenwriter. He is one of the most imaginative and inventive storytellers working today, and we’re honored to partner with him as he brings his unique vision and soul to the director’s chair for the first time with a wholly original idea that is as thought-provoking as it is moving.”

Spaihts is reportedly working on the script for Dune Messiah with Villeneuve and while Villeneuve wants to take a break from the sand epic to do another kind of project, he said back in April that he had already started working on the script for Dune Messiah. Villeneuve said, “That anger (felt by Zendaya’s character at the end of Part Two) is tremendous. I don’t want to reveal what I’m going to do with the third movie. I know exactly what to do. I’m writing it right now. But there’s a lot of firepower there, and I’m very excited about that decision.“

The novel Dune Messiah has the following description: Dune Messiah continues the story of Paul Atreides, better known-and feared-as the man christened Muad’Dib. As Emperor of the Known Universe, he possesses more power than a single man was ever meant to wield. Worshipped as a religious icon by the fanatical Fremens, Paul faces the enmity of the political houses he displaced when he assumed the throne-and a conspiracy conducted within his own sphere of influence. And even as House Atreides begins to crumble around him from the machinations of his enemies, the true threat to Paul comes to his lover, Chani, and the unborn heir to his family’s dynasty.