A few weeks ago, following a difficult divorce from DreamWorks and the fire that ransacked their Bristol storage warehouse, Aardman Animations didn’t exactly appear to be in great shape.
Well, the giants of Claymation are bouncing back in fine style, signing an exclusive, three-film first-look deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment. Noticeably- following the pressure shoved upon the company to perform under its five-film deal with DreamWorks, the new agreement doesn’t specify how many films Aardman will produce with Sony.
Co-founder and chairman David Sproxton seemed upbeat in the announcement press release” "We pitched them a major snapshot of what we had in mind, and five different movie projects," Sproxton said. "We want to make sure we have enough projects in development to make a movie every 18 months."
The deal apparently includes another adventure for Wallace And Gromit – either a short or a feature film - another, non-Gromit idea and, if they can agree on the script, a revival of the ditched The Tortoise And The Hare cartoon.
"We are ramping up development, but it is by no means a sausage-making machine,” blabbed Sproxton. A cheese factory, perhaps? Wallace would certainly prefer that. Still, cheers to the Aardman gang and let’s hope this deal works out a little more successfully…
