‘Corpse Bride’ Writer John August Penning Untitled Pete Candeland Movie at LAIKA

BAFTA-nominated screenwriter John August (Corpse Bride, Frankenweenie) has signed on to write the untitled stop-motion animated feature film to be directed by Pete Candeland for LAIKA. The announcement was made today by LAIKA President & CEO Travis Knight.

Inspired by an original idea from Candeland, who joined LAIKA in 2023, the story revolves around a theater-loving high school student who is lured into a mystifying never-ending bacchanal in search of her missing mother.

​“I’m thrilled to be back in the world of stop-motion animation working with a team of incredible artisans telling stories one frame at a time,” said August. “Truly everything about stop-motion is time-consuming and difficult, but the results have a texture and authenticity that can’t be replicated. You can feel the fingerprints of everyone who touched it.”

August wrote the stop-motion animated films Corpse Bride and Frankenweenie, both in collaboration with Tim Burton, as well as Don Bluth and Gary Goldman’s Titan A.E. (2000). In live action, his writing credits include Burton’s Big Fish (2003), for which he received a BAFTA nomination; Charlie’s Angels (2000); Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (2003); and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), among others. August co-hosts the popular Scriptnotes podcast with Craig Mazin.

Candeland’s high concept style and strong narrative sensibilities is fully on display in his hugely popular music videos for Gorillaz, his Rock Band game franchise spots and his emotive BBC trailers. His arrival at LAIKA was part of the studio’s bolstering of its Animation Division. In addition to Candeland, LAIKA recruited the Annie Award-winning filmmaking duo of Victor Maldonado & Alfredo Torres, known collectively as Headless, to develop animated features.

Hillsboro, Oregon-based LAIKA has produced five award-winning stop-motion feature films: Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings and Missing Link. The studio’s sixth animated movie, Wildwood, is an adaptation of the graphic novel by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis, directed by Travis Knight, which is slated to release in 2026.