'Fantastic Mr. Fox' Animation Director Mark Gustafson To Helm 'Goblins' For Laika Studios

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by Benjamin Wright
April 19, 2012 9:59 AM
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The sheer thought of animated production house Laika making a new feature should excite most any cinephile or fan of animation, especially with their track record that includes “Coraline” and the upcoming and equally tantalizing "ParaNorman," the horror-themed story of a young boy who looks to save his town from an ages-old curse. We’ve already seen a few trailers for that project, we know composer extraordinaire Jon Brion will be handling soundtrack duties, and frankly we’re pretty excited.

Well it looks as if Laika is lining up another one to satiate our interest in a post-“ParaNorman” world, as they’ve hired “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” animation director Mark Gustafson to helm the adaptation of the Philip Reeves novel “Goblins,” which follows a well-mannered goblin named Skarper who must assemble his more putrid family of Goblins to help him battle a rising and dangerous evil force. There looks to be mythical creatures and monsters galore in what will surely be another epic-sized journey into fantasy for the Portland, Oregon-based Laika, for which this film sounds right in their wheelhouse.

Reeves’ novel hit U.K. shores earlier this year, with plans to fall stateside in 2013, and with their resume thus far, we have faith that Laika can produce a quality fantasy fest with their penchant for detailed and enthralling animation. We're assuming their adaptation of The Decemberist’s frontman Colin Meloy’s “Wildwood” is a bit further than we expected, as this project already sounds more realized and ready to go than that film.

We’d guess we won’t be seeing this until at least 2014, since it takes a very long time for these stop-motion projects to be produced, but we’ll certainly be waiting for this project from Pixar’s seemingly more angst-filled twin, and yes, that’s a compliment. [Variety]

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