Hillsboro animation studio behind 'Coraline' will adapt best-selling novel

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The award-winning Hillsboro studio behind films “ParaNorman” and “The Boxtrolls” is set to produce another animation based on a best-selling book.

On Thursday, Laika announced it had acquired the rights to English author Susanna Clarke’s fantasy novel “Piranesi.” President and CEO Travis Knight, whose father and Nike co-founder Phil Knight owns the studio, will direct the adaptation.

When the book was released in September 2020, it was Clarke’s first published novel since her 2004 debut “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell,” which was later adapted into a miniseries.

Her latest work follows the story of a character named Piranesi who resides in a never-ending home. He lives with just one other man, The Other, who leads him to the great exploration of a “world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.”

The fantasy book has earned Clarke an award for Audiobook of the Year, Best Novel and the Women’s Prize for Fiction. According to Laika, it has also become a New York Times and Sunday Times best-seller with over four million copies sold.

“I've been inspired by so many animated movies; and LAIKA has produced such extraordinary work — movies like 'Coraline' and 'Kubo and the Two Strings,' full of beauty and wonder and weirdness,” Clarke said in a statement.

Travis said he is “humbled” the author has trusted his animation studio as her work’s new home.

“‘Piranesi’ is a treasure, and very dear to me,” Travis added. “As a filmmaker, I can scarcely imagine a more joyful experience than wandering through the worlds Susanna dreamed into being. She’s one of my all-time favorite authors, and with 'Piranesi,' Susanna has created a beautiful, devastating and ultimately life-affirming work of art.”

Laika hasn’t confirmed whether it has begun adapting Clarke’s novel, but it is currently producing “Wildwood” based on Colin Meloy’s fantasy novel of the same name. The studio is also developing “The Night Gardener,” an animation dreamt up by “Ozark” co-creator Bill Dubuque.