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Nike father-son duo lace up Coraline

Knights' Laika co. launches first feature effort

Nike mogul Phil Knight hoped his kids might follow him into the shoe business. Instead, son Travis dragged him into show business. Now, several years after buying out Vinton Studios, the father-son duo are launching their first feature effort with “Coraline,” which Focus released Feb. 6.

The Knight boys have a long history of disappointing their fathers when it comes to choosing a career, Travis explains. “When Phil told his father he wanted to be a cobbler or a shoemaker, his dad was out of his mind. He couldn’t believe he didn’t want to be a lawyer or a newspaperman like him.”

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It was Travis’ aptitude for animation that first inspired Knight to invest in Vinton Studios, the Portland-based stop-motion shop responsible for the California Raisins. And when the company became insolvent after 9/11, Knight stepped in again, buying out the operation and renaming it Laika Entertainment.

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Yes, upstart animation companies have been known to sell for billions, but Phil Knight is a realist. “For every Pixar, there are a dozen failures,” he says. And besides, his interest in Laika wasn’t strictly financial. As Phil puts it, “Some people think it’s still trying to make up for being a bad father in his early years. There was a lot of time on the road and late hours trying to get Nike going.”

Unlike his dad, Travis graduated college without a clear idea of what he wanted to do with his life. “As I was growing up, I saw (my father’s) insane passion for sports, and it always struck me as odd, because I didn’t get that little bit of DNA,” he says. “I played Little League, and I was good at it, but it wasn’t a driving force for me. Frankly, I would have rather been sitting around in my room with a sketchpad.”

Phil Knight tried to be supportive. He had humored his son’s early stab at a record deal (as a teen, Travis cut a rap album under the name Chilly Tee), but now the plan was for Travis to intern at four different companies.

He started with Vinton Studios, which was busy working on stop-motion sitcom “The PJs” for Fox. Travis was hooked and decided to stay on.

Then “The PJs” was canceled and the ad market dried up, forcing Phil to make a decision: Would he let Vinton go out of business? “When Phil stepped in, he was just trying to keep the business afloat.” Travis says

That meant big changes. Phil took control of the company, gave founder Will Vinton his walking papers and put Travis on the board. Travis also serves as head of animation, and was a lead animator on “Coraline.”

As Phil is fond of saying, “The shoe business is a risky business, and the movie business is gambling.” But he could still apply the lessons of his success. His choice in execs featured a mix of animation pros (such as “Coraline” helmer Henry Selick, who became supervising director), trusted business associates (he tapped Nike vet Dave Wahl to be CEO) and experts from entirely separate fields (VP of development acquisitions Fiona Kenshole had been publishing director of Oxford U Press Children’s Books before coming onboard).

“That’s pretty much what he does at Nike,” Kenshole explains. “He likes to get people from different areas and throw them in at the deep end and encourage them to transfer their skills to new areas.”

The Knights kept Vinton’s commercials division going through Laika House, but shifted the company’s primary focus from TV programming to working on feature films. While other toon studios were making mostly original productions, Kenshole went about acquiring the rights to cherished children’s book properties, such as Alan Snow’s “Here Be Monsters!”

It’s no coincidence that the company’s first feature is “Coraline,” a faithful adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s dark fairy tale, particularly since Laika’s return on investment isn’t the same model as a Pixar or a Disney.

“If you have stockholders that expect you to make a $200 million blockbuster each time, you have to make a certain kind of film,” Kenshole says.

By keeping budgets low, Laika aims for a more targeted, but timeless kind of story, one that will hold up in 10 years. “Nobody got into this endeavor to get rich. It was all about making a positive impact on the culture,” says Travis, who hopes audiences will come to associate a certain level of quality with the Laika brand, the way they do Pixar.

However, for all his philanthropic ideals, Phil Knight didn’t take on Laika as a charitable cause. In December, he pulled the plug on the company’s intended second feature, “Jack and Ben,” and laid off 65 employees. When “Coraline” missed its planned November release date, Laika had to beg Disney to hold back the Jonas Brothers 3-D concert movie so that “Coraline” could have a few weeks to play on 3-D screens.

Laika partnered with Focus on “Coraline,” but the studio has yet to find takers for the other properties it has been shopping around town. “We’re committed to making at least a couple more movies,” Phil Knight says. “It would be a lot easier if we could get someone else to help row the boat.” With nine other projects in development, Knight expects to announce Laika’s second feature this summer.

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