Wildwood's Makers Reveal a Billie Eilish Doll, a ParaNorman Test Shoot and Kuwaiti Oil Fire Footage
Wildwood's cinematographer tested his lighting on a Billie Eilish doll. The detail is one of several about how Laika's new stop-motion film took shape, shared in an interview with Deadline, published on 14 November 2026.
The interview featured director Travis Knight, cinematographer Caleb Deschanel and visual effects supervisor Steve Emerson. They talked about their inspirations at Contenders Film Los Angeles, a industry event where filmmakers meet buyers and press.
Stop-motion means photographing physical puppets one frame at a time, then stitching the frames into motion. Laika makes its films this way in a studio just outside Portland, Oregon. The company calls Wildwood a love letter to that home. Laika says the film is now playing only in theatres. Knight is the studio's president and chief executive.
Wildwood is based on Colin Meloy's book. Knight said it took him 16 years to work out how to adapt it for the screen. Peyton Elizabeth Lee voices Prue, and Jacob Tremblay voices Curtis.
Deschanel did a test shoot with Norman, the lead character of Laika's 2012 film ParaNorman, while planning the shots. He also studied footage of the Kuwait oil fires from Fires of Kuwait, a 1992 IMAX documentary, to help build the film's hellscape.
The final battle, Knight said, is a ballet between the practical and the digital. Emerson said there are no digital elements in the film that were not informed by practical ones. In other words, the computer work was designed around things that existed on set.
Laika has received six Academy Award nominations and has won an Academy Sci-Tech Award, according to the studio's website. That record is a useful backdrop for a team that talks so openly about handmade puppets and special effects.
For anyone who has watched animation only on a screen, the interview offers a glimpse of the workshop side. A film that moves a puppet one frame at a time needs lighting, reference footage and effects work, and each of those has to be planned well before the camera rolls. Wildwood's makers spent much of their time explaining how those choices fit together.
