Sony distributes Aardman

(Source: www.variety.com)

After DreamWorks Animation and Aardman split last January, it was a foregone conclusion that some North American distributor would pick up the British Claymation studio responsible for the multiple award-winning Wallace and Gromit series. Even though DreamWorks didn't know how to market Aardman's British style of humour, movies like Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit had made a big enough splash that someone would try to bring Aardman's wares back to the North American market.

Well, it turns out that smart studio is Sony Pictures Entertainment. Sony has signed a 3-year, first-look deal with Aardman Animation. What that means is, Sony gets to see what Aardman's cooking in their Claymation lab. If Sony likes it, they will distribute the flick in North America. Unlike DreamWorks' previous deal with the Bristol-based studio, Aardman will make all their movies in-house with no assistance (read: interference) from the distributor.

"Aardman Features is enormously popular around the world," says SPE chairman and CEO Michael Lynton. "We believe that their strength is their unique storytelling humor, sensibility and style and we plan to bring their distinctive animated voice to theaters for a long time to come."

"Over the past 18 months, we have worked hard to create a new vision for Aardman Features," claimed Aardman COO Stephen Moore. "This includes an expanded development slate, increased production and plans to introduce new technical capabilities at our facility in Bristol.

"This agreement with Sony Pictures is very much at the heart of our new vision as they passionately support both Aardman's existing core creative values and enthusiastically support our creative ambitions for the future."

Aardman has four projects in "final stages of development" right now including another stop-motion Wallace and Gromit feature. Director Nick Park is currently polishing the script for this as-yet unknown project. Considering that Curse of the Were-Rabbit pulled down a decent $200 million profit worldwide (and won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film), that's probably the flick that Sony will be salivating the most over.

Another possibility in Aardman's slate is the long-delayed Tortoise and the Hare project, a mockumentary based on the classic Aesop's fable. It originally had Michael Caine (Batman Begins) attached to it when it was part of the DreamWorks/Aardman alliance, but recent rumour suggests that Bob Hoskins (Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) may be in there instead.

"We know from experience that we create our best work when we do it from our home base here in Bristol, using first-class talent from the nation and around the world," said Aardman co-founder and executive chairman David Sproxton. "It is Aardman's intention to expand this community to produce more world-class animated films."

Sproxton is, of course, referring to the less-than-harmonious experience Aardman had working with DreamWorks Animation on Curse of the Were-Rabbit and their last feature, Flushed Away. Both movies were marked by increasing clashes between the studios, with DreamWorks demanding voice changes in Curse of the Were-Rabbit and changing large chunks of Flushed Away at their animation studios in Los Angeles. DreamWorks applied for a $109 million write-down on Flushed Away even before the movie hit theatres.

When DreamWorks said that they were scaling down their animated releases to two films a year (one original film and one sequel), Aardman knew the writing was on the wall.

Even though Sony has its own animation group (responsible for such fare as 2006's Open Season and the upcoming Surf's Up), it's obvious that the studio wants a bigger piece of the lucrative family animation market. Open Season did respectable business in theatres, but was far behind the two biggest CGI moneymakers of 2006: Disney/Pixar's Cars and Warner Bros.' Happy Feet.

Hooking up with a prestigious studio like Aardman (which has a worldwide presence and multiple Academy awards to its credit) is a quick way of boosting Sony's profile in the animated realm.

For their part, Aardman is looking to work in a myriad number of styles, including Claymation and CGI, and different budgets. It plans to release a feature film once every 18 months, as well as working on such shorts as Purple and Brown and Shawn the Sheep.

"The thing that attracted us to Sony is that they have a very broad taste, and they are distributing 20 movies a year around the world," says Stephen Moore. "Their desire to restrict us was much less, so we can make movies that follow Aardman's instinctive style."

Fun Fact: Click here to find out what's happening to another of DreamWorks/Aardman's aborted projects, Crood Awakening.

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