Laika teams up with Phil Lord and Chris Miller for live-action Crumble

Laika is taking its live-action production seriously and is offering a new project called “Crumble,” which will be written and directed by Brian Duffield and produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

“Crumble” tells the story of “a married couple who embark on a daredevil adventure around the world in the hope of finding a cure for an ancient curse.”

The announcement was made by Matt Levin, president of live-action and series at Laika. “We are thrilled to be working with Brian and the entire team at Lord Miller on this special film,” he said in a statement Tuesday. “Brian has such a unique voice and ‘Crumble’ perfectly embodies the bold, emotional and imaginative style of storytelling we champion at Laika. Lord Miller is in a class of his own and we couldn’t ask for a better creative team to bring this story to life.”

Aditya Sood will produce for Lord Miller with Duffield. Lord Miller’s Lucy Kitada and Nikki Baida serve as executive producers.

Duffield began his career as a writer on the widely acclaimed 2011 Black List film “Jane Got a Gun” (it was finally released in 2015, after a notoriously fraught production that saw original director Lynne Ramsay, star Jude Law and cinematographer Darius Khondji leave the production shortly before shooting began). Since then, he has written “The Babysitter,” “Underwater” and “Love and Monsters,” written and directed “Spontaneous” and “No One Will Save You,” and produced “Cocaine Bear” with Lord and Miller.

He is set to co-write, produce and direct an adaptation of “Whalefall” for 20th Century Studios and Imagine Entertainment based on the novel by Daniel Kraus.

“I’ll never forget watching ‘Coraline’ on opening night at AMC Burbank 16 and wondering who these wonderful new geniuses were,” Duffield said of working with Laika. “I can’t wait to make a film with them and hopefully live up to their reputation, and I couldn’t be more excited to embark on a new adventure with my friends at Lord Miller.”

“We are thrilled to continue working with our friend Brian Duffield, who has written a script that is endlessly imaginative, funny and romantic,” added Miller and Lord. “We have long been fans of Laika and Travis Knight’s groundbreaking work in animation and couldn’t be more excited to work with them on live-action films.”

Laika is the Oscar-nominated stop-motion animation studio behind “Coraline,” “ParaNorman,” and “Kubo: The Courageous Samurai.” It is owned by Nike co-founder Phil Knight, while his son Travis Knight serves as president, CEO, and even director of Laika. The studio is currently working on the stop-motion film “Wildwood,” directed by Knight, with “The Night Gardener” and “Piranesi” in the works soon.

The studio has made progress in producing live-action films. Its first live-action film is set to be “Seventeen,” based on a novel by John Brownlow. There is no writer or director yet, although Laika noted in its new statement that “Crumble” will “expand its live-action offerings.”