Netflix commissions Nexus Studios to develop new stop-frame dark comedy The House

Bringing together three top directors – Marc James Roels & Emma de Swaef, Niki Lindroth von Bahr and Paloma Baeza – the series will follow a story of three generations living under one roof.

Date
17 January 2020

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Netflix has announced that it has just commissioned animation house Nexus Studios to make an “eccentric dark comedy” entirely using stop-frame animation. Directors Marc James Roels & Emma de Swaef, Niki Lindroth von Bahr and Paloma Baeza have been lined up to collaborate on the series, called The House, with each animator directing an episode each. According to a release from Netflix, the series centres on “a house and the surreal tales of three generations of families who made it their home”.

Ghent-based animation duo Marc James Roels & Emma de Swaef (aka Marc & Emma) are best known for their tactile felted characters, and work across film and commercials. Often unleashing an absurdist sense of humour, the pair picked up a host of awards for their most recent film This Magnificent Cake! , which tells the story of a motley crew of characters based in colonial Africa in the late 19th century.

Working in stop motion and puppetry, Niki Lindroth von Bahr often creates surreal and dark stories sometimes involving animals, such as in her film Something to Remember (pictured). She also designed David Bowie’s costume for his last ever music video. Paloma Baeza is a Bafta-winning director and actress, whose 2018 film Poles Apart followed the unlikely friendship between a grizzly bear and a polar bear, voiced by Helena Bonham Carter.

Nexus Studios co-founder and producer Charlotte Bavasso says: “The House is a collection of cinematic stories that are intelligent, witty, inquisitive, warm and yet packed with offbeat humour. For this project, Nexus are bringing together, for the very first time, three of the most unique and multi-awarded voices in independent stop motion animation today in Niki, Marc & Emma and Paloma. This production is an organic collaboration between brilliant and like-minded storytellers.”

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A still from Niki Lindroth von Bahr's Something to Remember

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About the Author

Laura Snoad

Laura is a London-based arts journalist who has been working for It’s Nice That on a freelance basis since 2016.

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