Laika Recruits the Copeland Brothers to Develop Animated Features

Chris and Justin Copeland previously worked on “Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts,” “Batman: The Killing Joke” and the “Guardians of the Galaxy” cartoon

Iván Lizarde

The Copeland Brothers have found a new home.

Chris and Justin Copeland, who have worked on “Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts,” “Batman: The Killing Joke” and Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” cartoon, have joined stop-motion studio Laika to develop animated feature projects. Travis Knight, president and CEO of Laika, made the announcement.

The Copeland Brothers, as they are collectively known, have been working for the past five years on feature and series projects for DreamWorks Animation. The feature they were working on for DreamWorks is not going forward; hence their pivot to Laika, TheWrap has learned. However, a short film that they were working on for the studio is coming soon.

The Copelands join a growing list of filmmakers who are working on projects for the Portland, Oregon-based animation studio, including Pete Candeland, who has directed a number of Gorillaz music videos; Víctor Maldonado and Alfredo Torres, who have directed portions of “Love, Death & Robots;” plus live-action projects from Jon Spaihts and Brian Duffield.

Knight, too, who is in production on the ambitious “Wildwood,” is also set to direct an adaptation of “Piranesi,” as well as “The Night Gardener,” the first animated project from the studio aimed at an older audience.

Born and raised in Chicago, Chris studied at the Illinois Institute of Art and Justin attended Columbia College focusing on Film/Cinema.

Laika’s last feature film was the Oscar-nominated “Missing Link” in 2019.

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