Bristol's Aardman Animation busy with two new films

Bristol-based animation studio Aardman has begun work on its next two full-length movies.

Arthur Christmas and Pirates! will be the next two animated films from the creators of Wallace and Gromit.

The two movies are set to be quite different in look and feel. Pirates! will use clay models like the company's film debut Chicken Run, while Arthur Christmas will use computer-generated imagery (CGI) like Flushed Away from 2006.

Pirates! is based upon The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists, from the best-selling series of books by children's author Gideon Defoe.

The story follows the fortunes of a cheerful but hapless pirate band as they cross the seven seas in search of adventure.

Pirates! is directed by Peter Lord, a founding partner of Aardman, co-director of Chicken Run and a two-time Academy Award nominee for his short films at the company.

Production has also started on Aardman's computer-animated feature film, Arthur Christmas.

Set on Christmas night, the story seeks to explain how Santa delivers all his presents in one night.

The screenplay was co-written by Peter Baynham, an Academy Award nominee for Sacha Baron-Cohen's film Borat.

Director Sarah Smith said: "This is a very exciting animation venture. Arthur Christmas is an epic comedy action adventure, with a cast of a million elves and the whole world as its location.

"The ambition we share with Sony is to make a CG movie with world-class production values, but also a comedy heart and charm that could only come from Aardman. It's the first time we've set up a feature length CGI film creatively here in Bristol and we are attracting a fantastic team of CG artists from around the world to add to the talent we already have within the company."

Sony Pictures entered into a three-year, first-look deal with Aardman Features in 2007, that has already produced a number of movies, and these new films are likely to be big money spinners too.

In 2000 Chicken Run took in nearly $225 million worldwide; Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit grossed nearly $200m and Flushed Away earned $176m.

All three films have achieved enormous critical acclaim, earning a total of 27 Annie Award nominations, the animation community's highest honour.

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit received the Academy Award for best animated feature in 2006.

Mr Lord said: "It's incredibly exciting to be moving forward on these two movies, and I'm thrilled to be back in the director's chair for Pirates!

"We love to work in different animation styles and techniques, so we're producing Arthur Christmas in state-of-the-art CGI while for Pirates! we're returning to our house style of hand-crafted modelling clay.

"The most important elements of any animated film are story and character, and we believe that in these films, we have characters to charm and stories to delight and engage."

The new films follow hot on the heels of the fourth in the series of short Wallace and Gromit TV shows, A Matter Of Loaf And Death, which proved a ratings winner at Christmas.