Laika Recruits Gorillaz Director And Annie Award-Winning Spanish Duo To Develop Features At The Studio

Portland, Oregon-based studio Laika has made a trio of key hires to bolster its animation division’s creative roster.

Annie Award-winning filmmakers Victor Maldonado and Alfredo Torres, who work together under the moniker Headless, and commercial director Pete Candeland have all been recruited to develop animated film projects at the studio.

The Spanish duo of Maldonado and Torres recently directed three episodes of Netflix’s Love, Death + Robots and worked together on Guillermo del Toro’s Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia, winning an Annie Award for an episode of the latter. Maldonado co-directed and Torres was a production designer on the Spanish film Nocturna, which won the Spanish Academy Goya Award for best animated feature in 2008. Most recently, the two worked with Skydance Animation, a company with strong Spanish ties and a studio in Madrid.

Pete Candeland is best known for co-directing, with Jamie Hewlett, animated music videos for the group Gorillaz. He has done recognizable commercial work for the Rock Band video game and the BBC. Candeland was also the original director of Illumination’s The Grinch, but left before the film was completed.

All three appointments are effective immediately. No details have been shared yet about what the three filmmakers are working on.

It’s good to hear that Laika is investing so heavily in its animation pipeline. Since its last feature, Missing Link, hit theaters in 2019, the company has announced a pair of animated films, but significant updates have yet to follow. Currently, Laika is working on Wildwood, based on the book series by Colin Meloy and illustrator Carson Ellis, and The Night Gardener, developed from an original idea by Ozark creator Bill Dubuque. Laika boss Travis Knight is helming both films. The studio is also moving into live-action filmmaking and developing a thriller based on the novel Seventeen: The Last Man Standing by John Brownlow.