‘Dune’ Screenwriter Jon Spaihts to Make Directorial Debut on Live-Action Film for Laika

Brian Welk
·2 min read

Jon Spaihts, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of both “Dune” and this year’s sequel “Dune: Part Two,” is set to make his directorial debut on another science fiction spectacle.

Spaihts will team with “Coraline” studio Laika on an original sci-fi thriller, among one of the first live-action movies for the famed animation house.

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Spaihts will both write and direct the project, and Laika is shopping the title as a sales package at the Toronto International Film Festival kicking off this week.

The film is still untitled, but it tells the tale of a woman investigating a mystery that took place during a week she cannot remember.

“Laika has long admired Jon’s iconic work as a screenwriter,” Matt Levin, Laika’s president of live-action film and series, said. “He is one of the most imaginative and inventive storytellers working today, and we’re honored to partner with him as he brings his unique vision and soul to the director’s chair for the first time with a wholly original idea that is as thought-provoking as it is moving.”

Spaihts added, “This is an original passion project I’ve been eager to turn to for a while. I couldn’t ask for better partners. Laika has a clear creative vision, and a tradition of meticulous, bespoke storytelling that suits this project very well.”

Spaihts previously wrote the original “Doctor Strange” in 2016, the “Alien” prequel “Prometheus,” and the sci-fi romance “Passengers.” He’s also the writer on the upcoming “A Minecraft Movie” based on the video game, plus other video game adaptation “Gears of War,” and a presumed third “Dune” film, which still has not been formally announced. Spaihts is an Oscar nominee for writing the first “Dune.”

Jon Spaihts is represented by CAA, Circle Management + Production, and Goodman Genow Schenkman Smelkinson + Christopher, LLP.

This would not be the first live-action film Laika has been a part of: the studio previously worked on the “Transformers” movie “Bumblebee.” Its live-action division has only been around since 2023, with one of the first projects announced as “Crumble,” written and directed by Brian Duffield and produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

Laika also re-rereleased “Coraline” in July 2024. The beloved 2009 stop-motion classic from director Henry Selick pulled in an impressive $48 million worldwide from theaters with its remastered 3-D re-release.

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