Laika’s stop-animation adaptation of Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi (yes, we’re excited too!) has tapped writer Dave Kajganich to pen the script.
Kajganich joins Laika CEO Travis Knight on the project, with Knight serving as director. The writer’s other credits include co-creating AMC’s The Terror and co-writing the script for Suspiria.
“Piranesi changed my soul and is one of the books in all the world, of any era, I most cherish,” Kajganich said in a statement. “Having Travis’ and Susanna’s trust in adapting it is something I take as an honor of the highest order. They are two of the loveliest, smartest, and most humane people you can imagine, so all of this is an actual dream coming true for me.”
If you’re reading Reactor, odds are good that you’ve also read Piranesi. Clarke’s story centers on a man named Piranesi, who has no memory beyond the last few years and whose world is a House with seemingly infinite rooms, corridors, and Fish. (And also Birds.) Twice a week, he meets a man he calls The Other, who is evidently from another world, a mystery that Piranesi ultimately, and beautifully, unravels.
Kajganich has an impressive track record for his projects, and I’m curious to see how he’ll tackle Clarke’s material for a feature. There’s still no news on when we’ll see the final product, but given the time it takes to create stop-animation films and the fact there still isn’t a script, it will likely be at least a couple of years until it makes its way to theaters.
