Coming the back off a major blockbuster, a lot of directors try to arc themselves towards smaller, more personally meaningful projects.
Christopher Nolan, for example, worked on the likes of The Prestige between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Joss Whedon did a black-and-white adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing in the middle of Avengers. Taika Waititi, however, has both of these beat on the whole obscure indie project post-studio blockbuster stakes.
According to Deadline, the Thor: Ragnarok director has signed on to direct the Black List-winning screenplay of Bubbles, a stop-motion animated film about the life and times of Michael Jackson - told through the eyes of his pet monkey, Bubbles. As we reported back in March of last year, Dan Harmon of Rick & Morty and Community fame is producing, with Waititi sharing directing duties with Mark Gustafson, who worked as animation director on Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox and will be co-directing Pinocchio with Guillermo Del Toro.
There's no confirmed date for start of production, but it's likely Waititi will finish up with Thor: Ragnarok in the next while and head straight into this afterwards. As palette cleansers, this is like an iceberg of weirdness and we honestly can't wait to see what it'll look like.
Via Deadline
