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Laika is a stop-motion animation studio known for its intricate craftsmanship and long-form storytelling. The company's latest film, Wildwood, marks its sixth feature and premieres at AFI Fest ahead of a nationwide release.
Wildwood’s $100 million budget is the biggest question mark in its path to theatrical survival. The stop-motion epic, directed by Travis Knight and released via Fathom Entertainment, opens October 23 — not against a superhero tentpole, but a DC horror film with a stronger opening forecast. Box Office Theory projects a domestic debut between $5–10 million. That’s not a failure. It’s a warning sign.
The murder of the crows in Wildwood wasn’t just a scene—it was a war. Five years, 231 puppets, and a team that rebuilt their entire workflow to make it happen.
Travis Knight’s Wildwood finally arrives — after 16 years, a child born during its inception now drives to the premiere. The stop-motion fantasy, long whispered about in animation circles as Laika’s most ambitious project yet, had its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on Sunday. It’s not just a film. It’s a monument to patience. To persistence. To the kind of slow burn that makesyou
Carey Mulligan plays a grieving ruler whose magic is born of loss, not malice. The film doesn’t ask us to forgive her. It asks us to understand.
Carey Mulligan voices the Dowager Governess Alexandra, a woman so broken by loss she weaponises it. Her voice alone — cold, precise, layered with sorrow — suggests a performance that could carry the film’s emotional core.
The movie, based on Colin Meloy’s 2011 novel, is now finally arriving — with a PG-13 rating, a story steeped in grief, and a visual language built frame by frame, hand by hand.
Black Bear announced it will handle worldwide theatrical distribution and co‑financing of Laika’s live‑action version of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s ‘Atmosphere’, a 1980s NASA‑set romance directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck.
Laika's stop-motion feature Wildwood, directed by Travis Knight, will open the 40th AFI Fest on October 21 for its US premiere, ahead of an October 23 theatrical release via Fathom Entertainment.