Stop-motion animators Laika remain one of the few such studios who regularly get to apply their arts to big-budget Hollywood movies—having most recently hit theaters with the charming (if fiscally disastrous) back in 2019. Now, Laika has announced its latest project, and it’s a doozy: A film version of Susanna Clarke’s 2020 novel . For more manageable in size and scope that Clarke’s masterpiece, , is still a pretty daunting book to tackle.
Told via first-person journal entries, the book centers on the titular character, a man who lives in a mystical realm called The House, an infinitely huge structure of stone archways, flooding caverns, and odd statuary that he’s been tasked with exploring by another man, known as the Other. As Piranesi explores, he begins finding things that challenge his basic belief that he has always lived in the House, while also meticulously cataloguing and delving into its secrets. The trick here, as readers of will know, is that a lot of the interest generated by the novel comes from how it depicts its title character’s fractured and bizarre mindset, which can frequently be as bewildering and mysterious as the House in which he resides.
Translating that to a visual medium is going to be a hell of a chore—although, at the same time, we can’t help but imagine what Laika, who are absolute masters at crafting physical sets for their puppets to move around on, will do with such a fantastical setting. The film is being directed by Travis Kn.
