Following the release of their latest film, Freaky Tales, Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck have come aboard to write and direct a live-action adaptation of Taylor Jenkins Reid‘s Atmosphere for Laika, the studio announced today.
Publishing on June 3 via Ballantine Books, the latest work from the author of Daisy Jones and The Six is a sweeping romance centered on two pioneering female astronauts breaking into NASA in the early days of the shuttle program in the late ’70s and early ’80s. The principal characters are fictionalized, though the book was written in the spirit of films like Apollo 13, The Right Stuff, and Gravity.
Atmosphere will be a Laika production in association with Circle M+P, the company that reps Reid and exec produced her recent hit Prime Video series Daisy Jones & The Six. Travis Knight, Matt Levin, Boden & Fleck, Reid and Brad Mendelsohn will produce, with Jeremy Kipp Walker serving as executive producer.
“We couldn’t be more excited to team up with three boundary-pushing creative voices on this very special film,” said Laika’s President, Live Action Film & Series, Levin. “From books like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo to Carrie Soto is Back, Taylor Jenkins Reid always captivates us with rich, emotionally complex characters and she is in peak form with Atmosphere. There are no better filmmakers to adapt Taylor’s story for the screen than Ryan and Anna, who throughout their amazing careers have crafted deeply human stories set against canvases of stunning cinematic spectacle. We can’t wait to see them bring Taylor’s world of Atmosphere to life.”
Best known for Daisy Jones and The Six, whose TV adaptation garnered nine Emmy nominations and two wins, Reid is a New York Times bestseller whose other works include Carrie Soto Is Back, Malibu Rising, and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, as well as One True Loves, Maybe in Another Life, After I Do, and Forever, Interrupted. Highly sought after for screen adaptations, her novel The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo is being adapted for film by Netflix, with Carrie Soto Is Back getting the series treatment at the service.
Boden and Fleck’s genre-bending action comedy Freaky Tales, starring Pedro Pascal, Jay Ellis and more, released in April via Lionsgate after premiering at Sundance 2024. In film, their other credits include Captain Marvel, Mississippi Grind, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, and Half Nelson. Additionally, the pair have worked on series including Mrs. America, Masters of the Air, and the upcoming Criminal for Amazon, to name just a few.
Laika is best known for its work in animation, having garnered Oscar nominations for films including Missing Link, Kubo and the Two Strings, The Boxtrolls, ParaNorman, and Coraline. Currently in production on its next animated feature, Wildwood, the studio’s live-action division continues to develop projects including action thriller Seventeen; Crumble, to be written and directed by Brian Duffield, with Phil Lord and Chris Miller producing; and an untitled pic marking the directorial debut of Dune scribe Jon Spaihts. Additionally, they’re working on animated features The Night Gardener, based on an original idea by Ozark‘s Bill Dubuque, and Piranesi, based on the New York Times bestseller by Susanna Clarke.
Boden and Fleck are repped by WME, Entertainment 360, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman. Reid is repped by WME, Park Fine & Brower Literary Management, Circle Management + Production, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman. Circle M+P is repped by Behr, Abramson, Levy & Johnson; Laika by CAA.
