KUBO: IT ALL STARTS WITH AN IDEA… AND THEN GETS BIGGER*If you haven’t read my other

KUBO: IT ALL STARTS WITH AN IDEA… AND THEN GETS BIGGER

*If you haven’t read my other posts about the conception of KUBO, please scroll down:)

Ideas are very personal. As shared in a previous post, the story of KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS is no exception. Inspired by my wife’s relationship with her mother and the beauty of Japanese folktales, I put pen to paper 15 years ago and started to jot down ideas.

Once I had the initial concept in place, i picked away at it for years until I felt it was ready to go from something private to something shared. It had evolved from a small, poetic fairy tale to an epic journey. In other words, it was ready to pitch to the big boys.

In considering what might be the best home for Kubo, I immediately thought of Laika. I’d worked on Coraline in 2006 and had a feeling they might be get the tone I was going for with Kubo. 

So, after a few emails, a dinner pitch was on the books to share Kubo’s story with the folks from Laika at the Tam O’Shanter in Los Angeles. Walt Disney often met here with his story artists so it seemed an appropriate venue to pitch a film idea. I huddled into a tiny booth with the head of production, the head of development and the CEO, and pitched two ideas. Kubo was one of them and in one of those rare occasions, I could tell they liked it immediately. I finished the pitch (and my Yorkshire pudding) we shook hands, and went our separate ways. I sent them a copy of my original story and two weeks later, we began negotiations for an option. Great. Fine. Easy. Right?

Not really. The hard work was about to come… writing the script for Kubo.

If Kubo was born in my heart and mind, he grew up at Hugo’s restaurant in Studio City. That’s when Marc Haimes and I began working on the script. It was February, 2012, I had a cup of coffee, an almond energy pancake and the REAL work began.

More to come…