DreamWorks Animation Parts With "Wallace & Gromit" Producer Aardman

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 31, 2007 - 11:00am.

Glendale, Calif. - Movie studio DreamWorks Animation SKG announced that it has ended its exclusive production agreement with Aardman Animations, with which it has released the films "Chicken Run," "Flushed Away" and the Academy Award-winning "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit."

Under the companies' 1999 agreement, U.K.-based Aardman would produce up to five films for DreamWorks Animation.

"With no new co-productions in development and DreamWorks Animation's slate announced for the next several years, DreamWorks Animation and Aardman decided to end the multi-picture deal," the company said in a statement.

"Today, DreamWorks Animation is focused on producing two computer animated movies per year, with a full film slate laid out into 2010. While I will always be a fan and an admirer of Aardman's work, our different business goals no longer support each other," said DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Added Aardman co-owners Peter Lord and David Sproxton, "both companies are aware that our ambitions have moved apart, and it feels like the right time to move on."

Meanwhile, Aardman spokesman Arthus Sheriff told Reuters on Wednesday the company is at work on a Wallace and Gromit sequel.

"It could be television, it could be a feature film. That depends on how the storyline develops. It will go into production as soon as [creator Nick Park] has finished writing it."