Wildwood

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After finding success (including an Oscar nomination) with Neil Gaiman's Coraline, animation studio Laika is looking to adapt another book featuring a female heroine for a future project, picking up the rights to young adult fantasy novel Wildwood.

Written by Colin Meloy, usually to be found crafting tunes and signing with The Decemberists, Wildwood follows the misadventures of Prue McKneel, who heads off on a quest to find her younger brother when he’s kidnapped. Forced to confront her fears, Prue must head into the Impassable Wilderness.

The book, which hit US shelves last week and also features illustrations by Meloy’s wife Carson Ellis, is (inevitably) planned as the first of a trilogy, with Laika's team also interested in adapting the other tomes should the first film prove a success.

"It's a story in the grand tradition of Tolkien, as big as Lord of the Rings with a wonderful contemporary quality as well," Laika’s Travis Knight gushes to Variety. "Nothing of its kind has been attempted in our medium. You have these epic scenes alongside very nuanced character moments, which are the two hardest things to do in stop-motion. It's exciting to imagine how this might all come together."

Given the time needed to create stop-motion animation, it won’t be the next film to trundle out of Laika’s workshop. The studio has several projects in development and is busy shooting ParaNorman, the tale of a lad who can talk to the dead and must save his town from a curse, ready for release next year.