I cannot tell you how psyched I am for this movie. I love Wallace & Gromit. I love Nick Park. This is gonna be so awesome!
It's due out late 2005 (possibly early 2006), so I know this is kind of an early posting... but DAMMIT I just can't contain my excitement!
what's the point of making a thread for it when we don't even hav a trailer or nothing.
please, this trend sucks, wait till we hav sumthing to chew on. otherwise this is pointless.
There's no trailer, but fans of the short films can use this to discuss how wonderful they are. I love the Wallace & Gromit shorts (and everything else Aardman does), and I hope they can sustain their brilliance for a full feature. But Chicken Run was great (I thought), and if Aardman can make a great movie about chickens, then I'm not worried at all.
My introduction to them was when I saw The Wrong Trousers after it won its Oscar and was broadcast on PBS, along with a great making-of doc. I must have watched it thirty times.
Quote from: Pubrickwhat's the point of making a thread for it when we don't even hav a trailer or nothing.
I TOLD YOU WHY!!! I just can't contain my excitement!
Come onnnnnn, I never start these sorts of threads... I just did it once to show just how damn excited I am! Plus I want a place where anybody who hears anything about the movie can come to and give up the info!
These are the first stills from the film released recently. The film is due in the U.S. on Oct. 7, 2005 (if it doesn't get pushed back again, that is).
I'm psyched.
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.joblo.com%2Fbig-movie-images%2Fpicwallaceandgromit1.jpg&hash=4d3570604039f37f607917e07917b437037c553f)
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Images, schwimages...how about some footage? (http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2661402?htv=12&htv=12&htv=12)
This (http://www.ifilm.com/ads/asl/fullscreen/index.jsp?uri=/ifilmdetail/2661402&htv=12) is apparently some behind-the-scenes thing. I can't see it (I'm at my work computer, which won't play it). I'll watch it when I get back, but you tell me how it is.
Also, the most complete summary to date:
It's 'vege-mania' in Wallace and Gromit's neighborhood, and our two enterprising chums are cashing in with their humane pest-control outfit, "Anti-Pesto." With only days to go before the annual Giant Vegetable Competition, business is booming, but Wallace & Gromit are finding out that running a "humane" pest control outfit has its drawbacks as their West Wallaby Street home fills to the brim with captive rabbits.
Suddenly, a huge, mysterious, veg-ravaging "beast" begins attacking the town's sacred vegetable plots at night, and the competition hostess, Lady Tottington, commissions Anti-Pesto to catch it and save the day. Lying in wait, however, is Lady Tottington's snobby suitor, Victor Quartermaine, who'd rather shoot the beast and secure the position of local hero - not to mention Lady Tottingon's hand in marriage. With the fate of the competition in the balance, Lady Tottington is eventually forced to allow Victor to hunt down the vegetable chomping marauder. Little does she know that Victor's real intent could have dire consequences for herand our two heroes.
It's awesome. There's probably nearly a minute, altogether, of new finished footage, much of it featuring some of the new characters. I've watched it several times already.
Got to see the clip, finally. Oooooooooh so excited!
Isn't the whole point of the grapevine to discuss upcoming films with excitement and anticipation? I'm all for starting threads on films which haven't got trailers cut yet. If you don't want to talk about the film yet, then don't bother checking the thread, but don't don't ban those who do want to talk about it.
Quote from: SleeplessIsn't the whole point of the grapevine to discuss upcoming films with excitement and anticipation?
And trailers add the most to that excitement and anticipation.
Quote from: SleeplessI'm all for starting threads on films which haven't got trailers cut yet.
And if it's a high profile film like Batman Begins or Episode III, then that's fine.
Quote from: SleeplessIf you don't want to talk about the film yet, then don't bother checking the thread, but don't don't ban those who do want to talk about it.
Nobody's banning anyone. You can discuss the announcement of film in the director's or actor's respective thread, but because something is announced doesn't mean it will be made. Remember how many threads the Fincher forum had for projects that never came to be? And now that forum is gone. We're just trying to make the site organized and easy to access for a Search instead of making many tangent discussions spread over many forums.
First of all, this isn't a problem anymore as there are pictures and footage available now.
Second of all, we needed a thread wherein we could at least talk about Wallace & Gromit. And I didn't start the thread until the movie was a confirmed 'in-production.'
Thirdly, it's Wallace & Gromit. 'Nuff said.
If a movie is gonna released in the future, I see no problem with having a thread for it. Assuming it's not a film associated with anyone from the directors forums.
but there's like a ten to one ratio of films that "will be released in the future" and films that actually get released. It turns into a big mess.
That said, I think this was a valid topic, Wallace and Gomit is a pretty big title, it's not like it's some random title.
Official Website (http://www.wandg.com) now up.
Not much yet, except for a larger version of that featurette, some merchandise, and the story plotline. But still, it's exciting.
Trailer here (http://screenrant.com/images/Wallace_and_Gromit_Trailer_330k.wmv).
I love this so much.
helpful hint:
in english, 'arson' sounds like 'arsin', arse being the english word for ass (US). so 'arson around' is funny.
this highlights the difference between american and english, one is crass the other class.
Quote from: Pubrickhelpful hint:
in english, 'arson' sounds like 'arsin', arse being the english word for ass (US). so 'arson around' is funny.
this highlights the difference between american and english, one is crass the other class.
Ahem, I got that. And it's also why I love Wallace & Gromit. It has class. I, as an American, learn so much from it and hope that it will make me a better person. Because all we can hope to be in this world is better than we currently are, and it's things like Wallace & Gromit that can help us become that.
Wallace & Gromit go to any length
Nick Park's madcap Claymation stars break out of the short-film mold with their first feature film.
Source: Los Angels Times
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CANNES, France — "I didn't really design it to travel," Nick Park says, still a bit baffled after all these years. "It was simply my own taste, the kind of film I wanted to see. It always astonishes me how universal it's become."
That short film, 1989's "A Grand Day Out," was seven years in the making, so long that when actor Peter Sallis, who'd voiced the lead for free, was called back for pickups he didn't remember doing the original job. Now, Park relates, "he says it's one of the best things that ever happened to him. He'd rather have this role than a permanent place at the National Theatre in London." Such is the power of Wallace & Gromit.
The madcap, multipart adventures of a hapless and rather dim inventor of Rube Goldberg-type mechanisms and his dog, a poker-faced know-it-all who barely tolerates his nominal master, turned out to have resonance all over the world. The second and third Wallace & Gromit shorts, "The Wrong Trousers" and "A Close Shave," have won more than 80 international awards between them, including two of Park's trio of animated short film Oscars. (The third was for "Creature Comforts.")
The Claymation shorts have also led directly to an enormous 30-foot, inflatable Gromit holding court in front of the Carlton Hotel and a trip to the film festival for their creator on a private jet provided by DreamWorks' Jeffrey Katzenberg. "I never realized," the genial and quick-witted Park admits, "that clay animation could get so glamorous."
The glamour and the trip to Cannes are in the service of the first W&G feature, "Wallace & Gromit — The Curse of the Were-Rabbit," to be released in the U.S. in October. "It's the first vegetarian horror movie ever," the 46-year-old Park says with sly sincerity. Taking his creatures to feature length — a project that took 4 1/2 years, including a mammoth 18-month shooting schedule — was fraught with all kinds of obstacles.
Though Park admits he "aspired to make feature films," when DreamWorks approached Aardman, the company in which he is a partner along with animators Peter Lord and David Sproxton, about going longer, "I didn't want to risk Wallace and Gromit, who had been so successful as shorts, in my first feature." So what came first, co-directed with Lord, was the phenomenally successful, Mel Gibson-voiced "Chicken Run."
Park also didn't want to proceed with a feature without a viable plot, which he didn't have until he and another writer came up with one in a pub in Bristol, England. "We thought, 'What if it was a werewolf movie and it was with rabbits, and it was not human flesh they were after but vegetables?' " he remembers. "This allowed us to use typical horror movie characters, like the skeptical policeman and a vicar who spouts all kinds of mumbo-jumbo about the beast within."
It also allowed for parts strong enough to attract the likes of Helena Bonham-Carter and Ralph Fiennes as voice talent. She plays Lady Tottington, an "eco-toff" who is attracted to Wallace's humane pest control firm, inevitably called Anti-Pesto. He is Victor Quartermaine, "a blood sport fanatic" who is her evil suitor. "It really is astonishing to me," the director says, "when you can go to people of that stature and ask them to play quite ridiculous roles."
That's especially astonishing to Park, who began with Claymation as "a 12-year-old kid who worked alone in his parents' attic" and who rarely told people what he was up to because "I didn't think anyone would be interested. When I went to Sheffield Art School, I didn't tell the tutors, I didn't think it was proper art. An art teacher, disgusted that I had drawn a cartoon, had told me that when I was 13 or 14. I thought it could only be a hobby, that it was too much fun to be taken seriously."
Given his solo beginnings, one of Park's key challenges was "slowly learning on each film to collaborate more and more." There was a crew of 40 on "A Close Shave" and close to 200 on "Were-Rabbit," including 30 animators. That meant the first co-director in Wallace & Gromit history — Steve Box, who'd animated the villainous penguin in "The Wrong Trousers" and Wendolene Ramsbottom in "A Close Shave."
All these people are necessary because clay animation is an astonishingly labor-intensive business. The clay is molded onto a metal skeleton called an armature, a frame of film is exposed, the clay is moved slightly, another picture is exposed, the clay is resculpted and shifted again, another picture taken. Twenty-four pictures equals one second of film, which means that three seconds a day per animator and two minutes total per week for the entire group of thirty is considered good production. "Clay animation doesn't lend itself to being industrialized," Parks says. "It's a cottage industry and it always will be."
Parks' biggest worry in involving all these people with characters he considers "my family, really," is that their work "continues to feel handmade, that it keeps the soul of the original films." To this end all the animators "go through a long process, they have to take Wallace & Gromit classes, lots of talks and workshops on how to do it the right way. I encourage them not to make things too slick and polished, they have to unlearn that. I don't mind fingerprints on the clay."
One of the great pleasures of a Wallace & Gromit short is distinctive and deliberate pacing; "it takes its own time," is how Park puts it. The director said the feature process included "pressure to move things faster, make things quicker, zappier" — pressure, Wallace & Gromit fans will be happy but not surprised to learn, he resisted.
"We're in a culture of very short attention spans, and we're feeding it, conditioning an audience," he says. "I think you don't have to hit people, you can appeal to their deeper nature. It's about respecting people, their ability to appreciate things if given a chance to."
New Trailer here. (http://progressive.stream.aol.com/aol/us/moviefone/movies/2005/wallaceandgromitthecurseofthewererabbit_019140/wallaceandgromitthecurseofthewererabbit_trlr_01_dl.mov)
That new trailer was so shit I had to turn it off.
it's the american trailer.
I wanna see the african trailer.
Pubrick's right, it's the American trailer, which means it says nothing about the film itself. It's all just as flashy and fast-paced as can be to try and sell it to stupid people. Nick Park said he didn't give into the pressure to make it faster-paced or flashy, so that doesn't accurately reflect the movie at all.
Don't worry: the movie will still be great. I have all the faith in the world that this will be awesome.
I hate false avertising. Going to see this though, because Nick Park, is brilliant.
Look for Wallace & Gromit in Three Amazing Adventures on 9/20 (SRP $19.99). The title will include A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave, along with the never-before-seen Cracking Contraptions shorts and a sneak peek at the upcoming theatrical movie Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (due in theaters 9/30).
Really great news story today about the new cheese featured in the The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Wenslydale is no more; now its all about 'Stinky Bishop'. The maker of the cheese was on the radio today apparently worried about meeting demands when the film is released having only a workforce of 2 and each unit of cheese being hand made.
Apparently the filmmakers contacted him about featuring the cheese after finishing animation yet he signed only an agreement for them to feature the cheese that involved no fee or W&G advertising rights. This might seem slightly crazy but during the radio show a business advisor was present and offered ways to cash-in, expand and capatalise on the product placement in the same way Wenslydale cheese did during the the first series of shorts.
What was great was that the guy seemed perfectly happy with his small business and didnt want the hassle of going into mass production. No doubt there will be many offers from other companies to buy the recipe for the cheese - which, is apparently a very tasty cheese despite livign up to its name.
This movie is wonderful! It's exactly like the original films - no big shakeups, everything you know and love - and its so perfectly plotted that it doesn't actually feeel any longer than any of the shorts. That was the biggest thing I was worried about, but all my hopes were fulfilled.
Three cheers!
Quote from: GhostboyThis movie is wonderful! It's exactly like the original films - no big shakeups, everything you know and love - and its so perfectly plotted that it doesn't actually feeel any longer than any of the shorts. That was the biggest thing I was worried about, but all my hopes were fulfilled.
Three cheers!
I knew it. I had no doubts.
I shall see it as soon as it comes out!
EDIT: And if you check Rotten Tomatoes, it's getting positive reviews across the board.
It was awesome. Not really a crowd movie, though. I can't wait to buy it and just watch it in a smaller setting. I could feel the audience waiting for bigger laughs and it's not really that kind of movie. I want to watch it by myself and notice all the brilliant details that the movie is filled with.
Quote from: matt35mmIt was awesome. Not really a crowd movie, though.
im gonna have to disagree, i saw it this afternoon with my two sisters (age10-13) and the theater was packed with kids and moms, which is seriously one of the worst audiences to ever be a part of, but this is one of the few cases that it actually made the film that much sweeter, all the giggles and laughter and they were all so taken in by it all that they didnt even talk and at the end they all clapped and cheered, it really was cute...yeah, this is a great film and everything was incredibly beautiful... :yabbse-thumbup: :yabbse-thumbup: :yabbse-thumbup:
Depends on the crowd, then.
Fire destroys Wallace and Gromit home
Staff and agencies
Monday October 10, 2005
A fierce blaze at the home of the animation company behind the Wallace and Gromit films has destroyed "the entire history" of the much-loved film-makers.
The roof of the Aardman Animations building in Silverthorne Lane, near Temple Meads station in Bristol, collapsed after fire tore through the Victorian building early today.
A spokesman for Aardman said the building housed all the props and sets from the company's history, which has scored a string of successes with its trademark "clay-mation" and gentle humour, beginning with the Morph cartoons on the BBC and going on to huge international success with Nick Park's Creature Comforts, the movie Chicken Run and the Wallace and Gromit films.
Today should have been one of jubilation for the Bristol company, following a hugely successful opening weekend at the international box office for the first full-length Wallace and Gromit film, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
Aardman spokesman Arthur Sheriff said: "Today was supposed to be a day of celebration, with the news that Wallace and Gromit had gone in at number one at the US box office but instead our whole history has been wiped out. The early reports are that the whole building has been destroyed.
"For us, it held everything we had done since day one. Everything from Morph to Creature Comforts to Wallace and Gromit was there. It had all the film sets, the props, the models, everything. It was very important to us. We used it for tours and exhibitions. It really is a bit of tragedy. It's turned out to be a terrible day."
Nobody was in the building when the fire broke out. The area has been sealed off and crews are expected to remain at the scene for the rest of the day.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.[/img]
That is fucking terrible.
... at least it wasn't while they were making the movie... as it is, only the tour and sentimental value is destroyed... but man, I would've loved to have taken that tour someday.
If it had happened during filming, I think we'd all just have to kill ourselves. Still, really sad news.
That makes me want to cry.
Loved the movie.
Not as much as The Wrong Trousers. It was just terrible fun from beginning to end. Ralph Fienne's Victor Quartermaine is just an awesome bad guy. Mod, I'm guessing you digged this, if you saw it. And if you haven't you should.
Delightful film. Full of warmth and good humor. Made me very happy.
The fire is terrible news. But at least the films themselves are safe.
Quote from: killafilmMod, I'm guessing you digged this, if you saw it. And if you haven't you should.
i liked this movie, probably slightly more than the Corpse Bride, but not as much as i had hoped. quick background: i saw the shorts while in college (for animation) and enjoyed them but never became a huge fan (like matt35 or anything). saw chicken run in the theatre and liked it but havent seen it since. so again, perhaps the insane goodwill for the film pushed my expectations a little high (as well as the 'universal horror homage' snippets i had read) and i hoped for something at the top of the medium. while i REALLY appreciate their independence of vision and the quality of their work and the sheer fact of getting this out there i root for it to do well, BUT as a viewer i didn't love it like i wanted to. i wouldnt put this anywhere NEAR the quality of film as The Incredibles for example. my girlfriend really dug it though.
but maybe it was just i was in a bad mood because i had to sit through a
MUTHERFUCKING CHRISTMAS CARTOON BEFORE THE FUCKING HALLOWEEN MOVIE IN OCT-FUCKING-TOBER!@!!!!!!! FUCK YOU DREAMWORKS!(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Flearning.cc.hccs.edu%2FMembers%2Fcschweitzer%2Fimages%2Fscanners.gif&hash=7b81c4bb59377895adc8ee4488a35abb72b465bb)
Quote from: modage
but maybe it was just i was in a bad mood because i had to sit through a MUTHERFUCKING CHRISTMAS CARTOON BEFORE THE FUCKING HALLOWEEN MOVIE IN OCT-FUCKING-TOBER!@!!!!!!! FUCK YOU DREAMWORKS!
Was that penguin cartoon mediocre or what? It had its moments, but it was trying way to hard to be pleasing. That and it was, as you say, a mutherfucking Christmas cartoon before the fucking Halloween movie in Oct-fucking-tober.
Title: Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Released: 7th February 2006
SRP: $29.99
Further Details:
Universal Home Video has revealed early details on Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit which features the voices of Peter Sallis, Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter. The disc will be available to own from the 7th February, and should set you back around $29.99. The film itself will be presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, along with English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround tracks. English, French and Spanish subtitles will also be provided. I'm afraid we have no word on extra material for this one yet, but we'll bring you the full spec rundown, and artwork, shortly. Stay tuned for that.
Aardman Reviving Tortoise and the Hare
Source: Variety January 11, 2006
Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit - The Curse of the Were-Rabbit creators Aardman Animations Ltd. are looking to revive The Tortoise and the Hare, reports Variety.
Aardman previously aborted production of the film, which shot for a few months in 2001 before script problems pushed it back into development.
The film is based on the classic story of the overconfident Hare in a race against the slow, but steady Tortoise.
The company's next project is Flushed Away, its first foray into CGI animation. Hitting theaters on November 3, it features the voices of Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, Bill Nighy, Shane Richie, Geoffrey Palmer, Simon Callow and Jean Reno.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/04/0411_060411_rabbit.html
Monster Rabbit Stalks U.K. Village (But No Sign of Wallace or Gromit)
James Owen in London
for National Geographic News
April 11, 2006
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It's a scenario straight out of a Wallace and Gromit movie: An enormous rabbit is laying waste to vegetable plots in an English village, according to reports.
The news was first dismissed as an April Fool's joke. But residents of Felton in northeast England have confirmed that a huge, floppy-eared creature is leaving behind giant paw prints and a trail of destroyed carrots, leeks, onions, and turnips following nighttime raids.
The reportedly black and brown, dog-size bunny could be an escaped giant breed of pet rabbit, experts say.
The tale has uncanny similarities to The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, the 2005 Wallace and Gromit animated film. The plot centers on a ravenous "were-rabbit" that starts chomping through prize vegetables just before the annual growing contest.
In the Oscar-winning movie, Wallace and his dog, Gromit, advocate humane pest-control methods.
The real-life rabbit—Bigs Bunny, as it's been called—faces a shoot-to-kill policy.
The bunny hunt is focusing on public land where 12 local residents grow plants to eat and to enter in summer vegetable competitions.
One of the gardeners, Jeff Smith, first spotted the rabbit in Felton in February. He described it as "a monster" with footprints bigger than a deer's.
"What the Hell Is That?"
"The first time I saw it I said, 'What the hell is that?'" Smith told local newspaper the Northumberland Gazette.
Three other villagers have also reported seeing the animal.
"It is a brute of a thing, absolutely massive," Smith added. "We have got two lads here trying to shoot it but they never see it."
Brian Cadman, who is hunting the animal, admits the rabbit is proving elusive.
"You can see what it's been eating," he told the BBC. "It's been taking huge bites out of cabbages, carrots and turnips. It's a hungry fellow."
Rabbit experts say the animal could be an escaped giant domestic rabbit. Some pet breeds can grow to more than three feet (one meter) in length.
England currently claims the world's largest bunny, a giant continental rabbit named Roberto, which lives with the owners of a pet store in Worcester. He weighs in at 35 pounds (15.9 kilograms) and measures 3 feet, 6 inches (107 centimeters) long.
Originally bred for their meat, other massive breeds include the British giant and the Flemish giant.
Escaped Pet?
Such a rabbit may have escaped from its hutch, said a spokesperson for the British Rabbit Council (BRC), based in Newark, England, which represents rabbit breeders in the United Kingdom.
"These rabbits can be aggressive," she added. "They'll see anybody off that enters their territory. This particular rabbit sounds like it's reverted to the wild."
Gordon Marshall is a show rabbit breeder and BRC representative for northern England.
He says pet rabbits have a habit of digging their way to freedom, especially if kept outside in a garden, and that they often interbreed with native populations.
"Some people are a bit naughty in that they buy a pet rabbit then get fed up with it and let it go," he added.
Marshall says that in recent years increasingly larger pet rabbit breeds have been imported to Britain.
"These rabbits have very large appetites," he added. "A giant continental can get through a couple of pounds [about a kilogram] of feed in a day. If they got into a garden, they would devastate a vegetable patch in no time. They'll eat nearly anything."
The success of The Curse of the Were-Rabbit may have made giant rabbits the latest must-have pet. But animal welfare groups say bunny-lovers should think twice before buying one—a sentiment that the gardeners of Felton would presumably second.
Mon Dieu!
C'est un lapin gros!
I like this part:
QuoteThe success of The Curse of the Were-Rabbit may have made giant rabbits the latest must-have pet.
This is like buying your own zombie after seeing a zombie movie.
I thought for sure that was a fake photograph, but I checked out snopes.com, and apparently it's real. Here's another photo:
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sweet jesus.
Put a big bowtie on that beast, charge people $20 to see it, and it's a guaranteed moneymaker.
Quote from: polkablues on May 04, 2006, 03:20:53 PM
I thought for sure that was a fake photograph, but I checked out snopes.com, and apparently it's real. Here's another photo:
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi35.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fd179%2Fpolkablues%2Fgiantrabbit_small.jpg&hash=aa925f2f872937b5aff184a05d65fd2acdc6afc4)
that's not the same rabbit as the one in the article though, that's a separate cutey patootey.
WALLACE AND GROMIT ON THE COMEBACK TRAIL
LONDON (Reuters)
Wallace and Gromit, the quirky plasticine stars of British cinema, are on the comeback trail. The filmmaking partnership of Aardman Animations Ltd and Hollywood's DreamWorks Animation SKG may have ended on Tuesday but Nick Park, creator of the animated pals, is busy at the drawing board creating a Wallace and Gromit sequel.
"Wallace and Gromit are alive and kicking," Aardman spokesman Arthur Sheriff said on Wednesday. "There is a project on the table right now.
"It could be television, it could be a feature film. That depends on how the storyline develops. It will go into production as soon as he has finished writing it."
DreamWorks and Aardman ended their seven-year partnership on Tuesday, saying their "ambitions have moved apart."
One problem was that the two failed to follow up on the success of their 2000 joint production "Chicken Run."
"Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit" was released in 2005 to critical acclaim and was awarded the Oscar for best animated feature. But box office receipts were weaker than expected.
In their first full-length film, the dim-witted Wallace and his faithful hound took on a mutant rabbit bent on destroying the town's annual Giant Vegetable Contest hosted by Wallace's secret love, Lady Tottington.
Peter Sallis reprised his role voicing Wallace, Ralph Fiennes played the evil Victor Quartermaine and Helena Bonham Carter provided the voice of Lady Tottington.
Park previously won three Oscars in the short film category with works featuring the famous duo -- "Creature Comfort" in 1990, "The Wrong Trousers" in 1993 and "A Close Shave" in 1995. He was also nominated in 1990 for "A Grand Day Out."
Sheriff said the split with DreamWorks was amicable but added: "What we have achieved is our freedom to make the film we want to make."
For Park, computer-generated images never matched the attraction of plasticine -- however time-consuming the film-making process might be.
"Nick loves creating stories for Wallace and Gromit and he feels they only really work in plasticine," Sheriff said.
"He is a creative filmmaker, he doesn't sit around the table discussing money deals with the executives."
Park was dealt a bitter blow in 2005 when a storage warehouse fire destroyed props and sets from the Oscar-winning movies.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6518257.stm
Gromit animators sign Sony deal
Wallace and Gromit creator Aardman Animations has agreed a three-year deal with Sony Pictures.
The Bristol-based company had been looking for a new Hollywood partner after its association with US studio Dreamworks came to an end in January.
"We couldn't be more excited about working with the entire Aardman team," said Sony co-chairman Amy Pascal.
Aardman co-founder David Sproxton said: "We are delighted to find a partner in Sony that shares our vision."
Oscar success
"We are all very excited by the potential and have a number of projects we are keen to bring to fruition with this new relationship," Sproxton added.
Last year's Open Season, featuring Billy Connolly as the leader of a group of squirrels, was the first release from Sony Pictures' animation arm.
Back in January it was reported the five-film deal between Aardman and Dreamworks had ended after two movies underperformed.
Losses were reported for their last two films, Flushed Away and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
However, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit went on to win the Oscar for best animated feature - one of four Academy Awards which creator Nick Park has won since 1991.
Aardman reveals new slate
Smith to oversee lineup
Source: Variety
Two months after announcing a three-year first-look deal with Sony Pictures, Aardman Features has unveiled a diverse slate of projects.
Lineup will be supervised by creative director Sarah Smith, who has been upped from head of development to the new role.
After stints as executive producer at the BBC and a string of comedy hits as a freelancer, Smith joined Aardman last year. Her impact on the claymation specialist has been immediate -- she has signed up a fleet of highly rated scribes for the Bristol-based animation powerhouse.
Smith has signed writers Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharoah ("Life on Mars") to work with director Steve Box on comedy heist "The Cat Burglars." The film about milk thieving stray cats will be in Aardman's trademark stop-frame claymation and combine the comedy action of Nick Park and Box's "Wallace and Gromit" feature with the cool styling of "Ocean's Eleven," Aardman claims. Box promises auds something altogether fresh -- "family friendly Tarantino."
Aardman co-founder Peter Lord returns to the director's chair for the first time since "Chicken Run" in 2000 with a comedy adventure based on the "Pirates" series of books penned by Gideon Defoe. Lord, Defoe and writers Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil, whose credits include the sitcom "Hyperdrive" and animation series "Slacker Cats," are working on the screenplay.
Also signed up to Aardman by Smith is Peter Baynham, one of the writers on "Borat," who is developing "Operation Rudolph," an actioner set on Christmas night. The Christmas movie shows the North Pole operation as an exhilarating ultra high-tech military procedure on a massive scale, revealing how Santa and his huge army of combat elves get round the whole world in one night.
Additionally, Nick Park is developing a new project. Details are not yet released but it is not another "Wallace and Gromit," according to an Aardman spokesperson.
"I'm passionate about matching the brilliance of Aardman's filmmakers with the very best talent in British comedy screenwriting," commented Smith. "This is an interesting time in the animation industry -- while there is clearly still a big appetite among cinemagoers for great animated films, there is a feeling of sameness about much of the product coming out of the industry at present, in terms of their stories. I think there's a great opportunity to excite audiences by raising the stakes in terms of the quality, intelligence and variety of the stories our animated films tell and the genres they inhabit."
Park Announces New Wallace & Gromit Film!
Source: Aardman
Today, fans throughout the world can see Nick Park talking about "Wallace & Gromit's" forthcoming new film. Within an interview style short film (http://www.wallaceandgromit.com/index.html), available only on the internet, Nick reveals that the plasticine duo's new adventure will be made for TV.
"Trouble At' Mill" will join multi-award winning "The Wrong Trousers" and "A Close Shave" as a TV half hour.
"Trouble At' Mill," to be shown on BBC1, is in pre-production now. Shooting starts in January and it will be finished for fall/Christmas '08. All production will take place at the Aardman studios in Bristol.
After the incredible success of "Curse of The Were-Rabbit," Nick is delighted to return to the 30 minute format: "I love making films for the cinema but the production of 'Chicken Run' and 'Curse of the Were-Rabbit' were virtually back to back and each film took 5 years to complete. 'Trouble At' Mill' will be so much quicker to make and I can't wait to get back into production." The new film will reunite Nick with writer Bob Baker who co-wrote both "The Wrong Trousers" and "A Close Shave."
In the film, Wallace and Gromit have a brand new business. The conversion of 62 West Wallaby Street is complete and impressive, the whole house is now a granary with ovens and robotic kneading arms. Huge mixing bowls are all over the place and everything is covered with a layer of flour. On the roof is a 'Wallace patent-pending' old-fashioned windmill. The transformation is perfect.
Although business is booming, Gromit is concerned by the news that 12 local bakers have 'disappeared' this year – but Wallace isn't worried. He's too distracted and 'dough-eyed' in love with local beauty and bread enthusiast, Piella Bakewell, to be of much help.
While they enjoy being the 'Toast of the Town', Gromit, with his master's life in jeopardy, must be the sleuth and solve the escalating murder mystery - in what quickly becomes a 'Matter of Loaf and Death'.