HILLSBORO, Ore. & LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#LAIKAStudios–LAIKA has tapped filmmakers Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck (Captain Marvel, Masters of the Air) to adapt and direct a live action film based on the novel Atmosphere (Pub 6/3/25; Ballantine Books) by #1 NYT bestselling author Taylor Jenkins Reid (Daisy Jones and the Six). LAIKA’s President, Live Action Film & Series Matt Levin made the announcement today.
The book is a sweeping romance between two pioneering female astronauts breaking into NASA in the early days of the shuttle program in the late ’70s/early ’80s. While the principal characters are fictionalized, the historical context and authenticity of the world-building is grounded in the spirit of films like Apollo 13, The Right Stuff, and Gravity. The epic story is set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle program and shows the extraordinary lengths we go to in living and loving beyond our limits.
Atmosphere is a LAIKA production in association with Circle M+P. Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck are screenwriters and directors. Producers are Travis Knight, Matt Levin, Boden & Fleck, Taylor Jenkins Reid and Brad Mendelsohn. Jeremy Kipp Walker is executive producer.
“We couldn’t be more excited to team up with three boundary-pushing creative voices on this very special film,” said 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.»
Taylor Jenkins Reid (subject of this week’s TIME Magazine cover story) is the author of the New York Times Bestselling novels Carrie Soto Is Back, Malibu Rising, Daisy Jones and The Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, as well as One True Loves, Maybe in Another Life, After I Do, and Forever, Interrupted. Her books have been chosen by Reese’s Book Club, Read with Jenna, Indie Next, Best of Amazon, and Book of the Month. Daisy Jones and The Six was adapted as a limited series on Amazon Prime, garnering nine Emmy Award® nominations and two wins.
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck are an Emmy®-winning Director/Writer/Producer duo with over two decades of collaboration, spanning a wide range of genres. Their latest film, Freaky Tales, is a genre-blending action comedy that premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. With roots in documentary and independent film, Boden and Fleck are also known for co-writing and directing the billion-dollar box office hit Captain Marvel. In 2006, Boden and Fleck made their feature debut with the award-winning film Half Nelson starring Ryan Gosling, who received an Academy Award® nomination for his performance. The film also won Movie of the Year at the AFI Awards, received Spirit Award nominations for Best Feature, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, and won Best Film, Director and Breakthrough Performance at the Gotham Awards. Next, they wrote and directed the independent film Sugar, an introspective sports drama following the life of a talented Dominican baseball player, which won Movie of the Year at the AFI Awards and received a Spirit Award nomination for Best Screenplay. In 2010, Boden and Fleck wrote and directed It’s Kind of a Funny Story for Focus Features starring Keir Gilchrist, Zach Galifianakis and Zoë Kravitz. Mississippi Grind starred Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn, who received a Spirit Award nomination for Best Actor.
In television, Boden & Fleck directed and executive produced the Emmy Award-winning limited series Mrs. America starring Cate Blanchett for FX. Other recent work includes Masters of the Air, executive produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, and Gary Goetzman for Apple TV+ and Criminal, to be released later this year, which Boden & Fleck directed and executive produced for Amazon Studios.
Circle M+P executive produced Prime Video’s Daisy Jones & The Six, based on client Taylor Jenkins Reid’s bestselling novel, alongside Hello Sunshine. The breakout series debuted at No. 1 on Prime Video’s Top 10 list in the U.S. and went on to receive nine Emmy nominations, winning two. Additionally, the company is known for executive producing the worldwide hit franchise, The Walking Dead.
Reps:
Taylor Jenkins Reid: WME, Park Fine & Brower Literary Management, Circle Management + Production, Jill Fritzo Public Relations and law firm Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson & Christopher.
Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck: WME, Entertainment 360 and law firm Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner Auerbach Hynick Jaime LeVine Sample & Klein.
Circle M+P: Behr, Abramson, Levy & Johnson
LAIKA: CAA
About LAIKA
LAIKA was founded in 2005 in Oregon by President & CEO Travis Knight. The studio’s five films: Missing Link (2019), Kubo and the Two Strings (2016), The Boxtrolls (2014), ParaNorman (2012) and Coraline (2009) have all been nominated for the Academy Award® for Outstanding Animated Feature. Kubo and the Two Strings won the BAFTA® Award for Best Animated Film and received an additional Oscar® nomination for Visual Effects. Missing Link was awarded the Golden Globe® for Best Animated Film. LAIKA was awarded a Scientific and Technology Oscar® in 2016 for its innovation in 3D printing. LAIKA is currently in production on its next animated film Wildwood. The studio is developing the animated feature films The Night Gardener, from an original idea by Bill Dubuque, creator of the hit series Ozark, and Piranesi, based on the NYT bestselling novel by Susanna Clarke. LAIKA’s Live Action subsidiary has a range of projects in development including feature films based on the action thriller novel Seventeen by screenwriter John Brownlow and an original script Crumble, written and directed by Brian Duffield (Spontaneous) with Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Spider-verse films) producing. Oscar®-nominated screenwriter Jon Spaihts (Dune) will write and make his directorial debut on an untitled original live action film project. www.laika.com
Contacts
Press Contact:
Maggie Begley/MBC
[email protected]; 310.749.3055
