Entertainment

Wildwood Premieres in London After 16-Year Journey

Jonah VillalbaPublished 2m ago2 min readBased on 9 sources
Wildwood Premieres in London After 16-Year Journey
Photo by Foreign and Commonwealth Office / CC BY 2.0

It took 16 years to reach the screen.

Laika's Wildwood had its world premiere on Sunday, Oct. 11, at Royal Festival Hall as part of the BFI London Film Festival, with director Travis Knight telling the crowd how long the journey had been, as Variety reported.

Knight appeared on stage alongside voice stars Carey Mulligan, Peyton Elizabeth Lee and Jacob Tremblay. The screening was one of the headline world premieres at the festival, which runs until Oct. 17.

Sixteen years. That was Knight's number from the stage. Production began in 2021 amid COVID, but development started about 10 years earlier when Laika optioned the book by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis. Knight joked that Barack Obama was still in his first term as United States president when work began.

Wildwood comes from Laika, the stop-motion animation studio where figures are moved by hand and photographed frame by frame. Laika, where Knight serves as president and chief executive, describes the film as a tale of love, loss, sacrifice and secrets, and as a love letter to its home just outside Portland, Oregon.

The story follows Prue, whose baby brother is kidnapped by a large flock of crows, drawing her into a local forest of mystery and peril, according to the BFI synopsis. It runs 132 minutes and is billed as the longest stop-motion feature ever made. It is also the first Laika film to receive a PG-13 rating, the American age guidance that advises parents some material may suit teenagers over 13.

For audiences, the wait is almost over. Wildwood is due in theatres on Oct. 23, released by Fathom Entertainment in the United States and by Black Bear in the United Kingdom. Tickets are on sale now, according to Laika's official website.

The London launch was the festival's 70th edition. Ahead of the premiere, the BFI programmed a family event titled Into the Woods: Wildwood Mask Making in London.

What makes this stand out is scale. Knight has previously acknowledged Wildwood was the most ambitious film Laika had ever attempted.

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