The countdown for Aardman Animations WALLACE & GROMIT THE MOVIE has started, as the studio in Bristol, England starts as the DreamWorks-backed feature gets underway in September, according to DAILY VARIETY and confirmed by a DreamWorks spokesperson.
The creator and director of those shorts, Nick Park, who also co-directed the DreamWorks/Aardman hit CHICKEN RUN will helm the feature-length WALLACE & GROMIT adventure along with Steve Box. The film will reportedly go before the lens next month and is slated for a 2005 release. No details about the storyline have been released at this time.
Park's co-director on CHICKEN RUN, Peter Lord, is developing FLUSHED AWAY, the next feature collaboration between Aardman and DreamWorks. It follows the antics of pampered British rat who accidentally gets flushed from his posh penthouse flat, into the slimy sewers of London. As he searches for a way back home, he falls in love with the sewer and its creatures, including a scrappy Cockney rat who steals his heart.
