In 2020, English author Susanna Clarke published her second-ever novel, Piranesi. Given that it’d been over 15 years since her Hugo Award-winning debut Jonathan Strange & Mr. Morrell, the book’s arrival had been a big deal at the time—and like how Strange was later adapted to TV, Piranesi is coming to film.
As revealed earlier in the week, Laika is tackling an animated version of the popular fantasy novel. Heading up the project is Bumblebee director Travis Knight, currently at work on the studio’s 2025 movie Wildwood. At time of With Piranesi being “very dear” to him, Knight called it a “joyful experience” to bring Clarke’s sophomore novel to the big screen. “She’s one of my all-time favorite authors,” he added. “Susanna has created a beautiful, devastating and ultimately life-affirming work of art [in Piranesi], and I’m humbled that she chose LAIKA as her home.”
Set in an alternate reality, Piranesi focuses on a titular narrator trapped inside a house containing a sprawling universe that also gradually erases people’s memories over time. Through Piranesi’s research notes, he goes about exploring the seemingly endless halls inside the house, crossing paths with a man named The Other who visits every two weeks help for some research of his own. The book received pretty great reviews upon release, becoming a New York Times bestseller and eventually got a BBC radio play.
If you’re a fan of the Piranesi book, this is hopefully good news for you. The bad news? It might be a while before we see or hear anything about it: after Wildwood comes out next year, Knight’s also tapped to direct stop-motion neo-noir The Night Gardener, and he’s eventually returning to live-action to helm Mattel’s long-gestating adaptation of Masters of the Universe. In other words, maybe plan your re-read (or first read) of the book accordingly, at least until a teaser poster or trailer hit the internet.
[via Empire]
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