Lulu Wang is ready to “Audition.”
The celebrated filmmaker behind “The Farewell” has been tapped to write (along with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Martyna Majok) and direct an adaptation of “Audition,” Katie Kitamura’s Booker Prize longlisted novel, for Laika and Higher Ground. Lucy Liu and Charles Melton are set to star. Wang’s production company Local Time will also produce.
“Audition” is described as “a twisty thriller that follows a celebrated actress enjoying a charmed, bohemian life in Manhattan with her creative husband. That is until a mysterious young man appears, claiming to be her long-lost son. What begins as a misguided reunion spirals into an enthralling mystery about identity, guilt and the roles we perform.”
President Barack Obama, who founded Higher Ground with Michelle Obama, included the book in his 2025 summer reading list. He declared it a “quiet novel about the ways we hide our true selves from others – and ourselves.”
“Katie Kitamura’s ‘Audition’ is a masterfully crafted psychological thriller that explores the complex layers of identity and performance,” Higher Ground’s head of film Anikah McLaren said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to partner with Laika and Lulu, an incredibly talented and poignant filmmaker, to adapt this compelling narrative about family, deception and self-discovery.”
“At Laika, we are always seeking out bold, emotional and inventive stories, and Katie Kitamura’s ‘Audition’ is exactly that,” Matt Levin, president of live-action film and series, said in a statement. “Lulu Wang is a brilliant and daring filmmaker we’ve long admired, and her unique vision and Higher Ground’s commitment to powerful storytelling make them the perfect partners to bring this extraordinary novel to the screen.”
“Bringing Katie Kitamura’s ‘Audition’ to the screen is a thrilling challenge,” Wang said. “What makes it feel possible, and electrifying, is working with Lucy Liu and Charles Melton. They’re both such magnetic performers and I can’t imagine better collaborators to step into this story with.”
Higher Ground’s Vinnie Malhotra and McLaren, Laika’s Levin and Travis Knight, and Wang are producers. Liu, Laika’s Jeremy Kipp Walker and Kitamura are executive producers.
“Audition” joins a robust and ambitious slate of live-action features, including “Crumble” from writer/director Brian Duffield and producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller, an untitled project from writer/director Jon Spaihts and “Atmosphere,” from directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, based on Taylor Jenkins Reid’s recent novel.
Known mostly for their work as a stop-motion animation studio behind hits like “Coraline,” “ParaNorman” and “Kubo and the Two Strings,” their upcoming slate includes “Wildwood” from Knight and a re-release of “ParaNorman,” with a brand-new short that will roll out for Halloween.
