Travis Knight, CEO of Portland’s LAIKA Studios, has signed on to direct The Six Billion Dollar Man for Warner Bros., according to Variety. Mark Wahlberg is attached to star, with Sue Kroll, Bill Gerber and Steve Levinson producing from a Bill DuBuque script.
Knight directed the most recent Transformers franchise offering, Bumblebee, released this past December, which grossed over $466 million worldwide while generating mostly favorable reviews. Knight also produced and directed LAIKA’s 2016 Oscar-nominated Kubo and the Two Strings, and has handled sophisticated stop-motion animator duties on every studio film up until their most recent.
This announcement, coinciding with the studio’s recent film release, raises questions about how Knight will continue to balance CEO and producing duties while developing and directing films produced at a different studio. It’s difficult to determine whether his divided attention during a large portion of a recent production was in any way a factor in the studio’s recent performance, especially considering the film has garnered positive reviews and word of mouth. The film is also the first studio release under a new distribution deal.
The Six Million Dollar Man is based on the classic TV series of the same name that ran on ABC from 1973-1978, starring Lee Majors as a former astronaut, Colonel Steve Austin, empowered with superhuman strength from bionic implants received after surviving a horrific crash.
