Wallace And Gromit Are Back

[EDIT: Rich had it wrong. As I previously reported (see the on-again-off-again bit below) the new Wallace and Gromit story is a 30 minute TV piece, made for the BBC. Trouble at Mill will begin animation in January for broadcast late next year - read: Christmas. There's a video announcement of the film on play doh duo's official site]

Rich Johnston got the scoop - Sony and Aardman are on the verge of revealing Nick Park's next film, and it's a Wallace and Gromit feature.

I guess Rich knows somebody in Bristol. Oh... hang on... I know who. I'm pretty sure.

The Wallace and Gromitness of the next Park flick had been on-off-on-again-off-again for a while. I'm glad an official announcement is forthcoming.

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.

Aardman Off To Sony

Variety say "Sony Pictures Entertainment has agreed a three-year, first-look deal with Aardman Features"

Apparently, Aardman have four fature scripts in advanced stages of development, one of which is the next Wallace and Gromit film that I'm sure Sony will be keen to net. I understand that BBC Films had been circling that one, and maybe a co-production deal will still come through.

Aardman's COO, Stephen Moore, has commented on how Sony have less of a desire to control than Dreamworks. Here's hoping it's much less, because a little less would still be much too much.

The plan is now for Aardman to produce a film every 18 months, both in stop-motion and CG. The Sony deal is only for three years, and is simply on a first look basis, so it is still possible - if unlikely - that Aardman could produce films elsewhere, even in that timeframe.

I'm hoping Richard Goleszowski now gets another crack at a feature.

Don't Say Mash Up, You L7

B3ta, terminally post-hip as they are, have collected an incredible roster of Movie Mash-up posters and images, but call them, as they would, Movie Combos.

Mash-up is so... what? August 2005?

Dr. Strangelove Actually and Nick (as opposed to Jurassic) Park were my favourites. There's an abundance of Toy Story efforts - I guess the title suits adaptation that way.

Oliver Stoned, Nick Parked

Oliver Stone was due to award the Best Comedy Film Award at the ITV1 Comedy Awards last night... but he ran late - very late - and the award didn't get handed out on the main show at all. Instead, it was only shown on the later ITV2 show - US viewers, be aware that ITV1 is a much watched channel, ITV2 most certainly is not.

But that's certainly not the best of it. Taking the stage, Stone made a very bad taste topical reference to a series of currently unsolved prostitute murders that appear to be the work of a serial killer, saying something like "I see it's Jack the Ripper time here again".

Possibly to avenge this, or possibly because he was starstruck and genuinely mistaken, Nick Park took the stage to receive his award and told Stone "Full Metal Jacket is one of my favourite films!" - to which Stone replied, clearly not pleased, "I did Apocalypse Now".