Imagine you’re an extremely talented stop-motion animation company, and you’ve already succesfully covered a dark modern-day fairytale and the subject of the supernatural – what do you do next? If you guessed Joe Eszterhas’ recently rejected script M.C.K.B.I., well… I suppose that’s an out-of-left-field choice, but not the correct answer in this instance.
No, after first bringing us the marvelous CORALINE and following it up with the equally-fantastic looking PARANORMAN on August 17th, Laika Entertainment will turn to the tropes, hopes, and wonders of the fantasy genre with an adaptation of Phlip Reeve’s book GOBLINS. Already published in the UK and set to be released in the States next year, GOBLINS is all about “Skarper, a clever young goblin who lives among his ill-mannered bretheren in an ancient castle. Only he understands that an ancient evil is rising that will bring all manner of monsters and mythical creatures into an epic magical conflict.”
Which is certainly great and all, but there are two more talking points to add: 1) Marc Gustafson (animation director for THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX) is being brought in to direct and 2) Laika CEO Travis Knight has been quoted as saying “GOBLINS is a fantasy with bite – in the hands of Laika’s freakishly talented artists and guided by the ineffably gifted Mark Gustafson, it will make a strange, stirring, and altogether beautiful film.”
What’s that, Laika? You want my money now? Absolutely – where do I send it?