Movies
‘Wildwood’ – First Look at LAIKA’s Dark Stop Motion Fantasy Adventure
LAIKA Studios, the team behind stop-motion animated hits ParaNorman and Coraline, are back with their sixth stop-motion movie, Wildwood. It’s billed as “LAIKA’s most ambitious cinematic journey yet,” and a first look featurette was debuted over the weekend.
Watch below for a sneak peek at LAIKA’s Wildwood, coming soon.
LAIKA previews, “Step inside LAIKA’s world of Wildwood, where a powerful golden eagle commands the skies and magic takes flight. In this first look, meet The General, voiced by Honorary Academy Award® recipient Angela Bassett, a fierce warrior and leader of the skies. Behind the scenes, the brilliant artists at LAIKA Studios are hand-crafting a character that soars beyond the screen through breathtaking stop-motion animation.”
Wildwood is written by Chris Butler (ParaNorman, Coraline), based on the novel by Colin Meloy, lead singer/songwriter for The Decemberists, and illustrated by artist Carson Ellis.
The epic fantasy is directed by Kubo and the Two Strings and Bumblebee director Travis Knight, President & CEO of the award-winning animation studio. Here’s the full synopsis:
“Beyond Portland’s city limits lies Wildwood. You’re not supposed to go there. You’re not even supposed to know it exists. But Prue McKeel is about to enter this enchanted wonderland. Her baby brother Mac has been taken by a murder of crows into the forest’s depths, and she – along with her hapless classmate Curtis – is going to get him back. Prue might think she’s too old for fairytales, but she’s just found herself at the center of one. One filled with strange talking animals, roguish bandits, and powerful figures with the darkest intentions.”
The voice cast for the upcoming Wildwood includes Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Jacob Tremblay, Awkwafina, Angela Bassett, Jake Johnson, Charlie Day, Amandla Stenberg, Jemaine Clement, Tom Waits, and Richard E. Grant.
Before updating the video nasty Faces of Death, director Daniel Goldhaber and writer Isa Mazzei explored the dangers of online life in tech-thriller Cam, their feature debut that was acquired by Netflix in 2018 after making waves on the festival circuit.
At the end of last year, the Netflix exclusive quietly departed from the streaming platform, left without another streaming home.
It’s not an isolated story; Mike Flanagan’s Hush also left streaming entirely for a period until it was finally picked up on both physical media and other streaming services.
While the tech-thriller currently isn’t available to watch on Netflix, Tubi, Hulu, or any other platforms, that’s not a problem for Cam thanks to a very cool move by Goldhaber: the director has made his breakout film accessible to watch online for free via his website.
As his site notes: “CAM is unfortunately not currently available to view on any platforms, so you can watch it here if you like :).“
No subscriptions or fees necessary, just hit play.
Cam follows Alice (Madeline Brewer), who works as an online cam girl obsessed with her ranking on the cam site. The higher her ranking goes, the more it draws unwanted attention, and Alice soon finds herself replaced on her own show with a doppelganger.
Written by Mazzei, a former camgirl, it uses the horror thriller premise to examine the life of a sex worker; Alice’s career ambition is directly at odds with the shame it brings to her family, and how she tries to spare them from it by keeping them in the dark. It only compounds her danger when the doppelganger enters the equation in Goldhaber’s engaging thriller.
For a deep dive into the treacherous world of Cam, listen to Horror Queers’ episode on it now.
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