The Sony And Aardman Slate

Variety have a list of the Aardman projects in development under the new deal with Sony, and they make for pretty exciting reading.

In escalating order of excitement then:

4) Peter Lord's Pirates, from Gideon Dafoe's books. Lord might be an Aardman pioneer, and a great director of animation, but he's not the best with camera, montage, story design. Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil are penning the script, which ensures a certain solidity to the end result, anyway.

3) The Cat Burglars from Steve Box. The screenwriters this time are Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharaoh. Yep - the Life on Mars guys. Might be an odd choice for a claymation film about rascally cats? Who knows. This is described as 'family friendly Tarantino' - whatever that might end up meaning.

2) Peter Baynham's Operation Rudolph. Santa's gift giving endeavours portrayed as a military operation. Baynham is very funny, and with the right director this will be incredible.

1) Nick Park's next. Details are non-existent, with only one piece of negative information: It is NOT a new Wallace and Gromit film. Sure - that's what its not, but what is it?

Park has apparently been developing more Wallace and Gromit and it seems odd that this isn't it. The most likely reason, I think, is that he's planning a short for them, not a feature. BBC involvement had been rumoured, so that might be just what is going on. Another Bank Holiday special?

I'm very disappointed to see no Richard Goleszowski project in the line up. Boo. I'm hoping he's teaming with Baynham on the Christmas film. That might knock Park off the top of the tree.