BENDIS!
05-12-2005, 07:17 PM
Cleese goes prehistoric for D'Works-Aardman ani
John Cleese
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By Anne Thompson
CANNES -- DreamWorks Animation SKG and Aardman Animations announced Thursday the fourth film on which they will collaborate, a prehistoric comedy called "Crood Awakening," written by ex-Python regular John Cleese, for 2008 release.
The announcement came as DreamWorks Animation hit the beach at Cannes for the fourth time with a 30-foot-high inflatable nylon Gromit to promote the upcoming feature-length film "Wallace & Gromit -- The Curse of the Were-Rabbit."
Calling the now-traditional visit the "great annual event," DreamWorks animation czar Jeffrey Katzenberg was joined by Aardman co-founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton and "Wallace" creator and director Nick Park at the Palais' Salle Bazin.
Katzenberg said he asked Cleese (who voiced a character in "Shrek 2") to pen the new film from an original story by Lord and Sproxton, who will be executive producers. "The Croods are sensationally unevolved," Lord said. "They haven't got fire, or the wheel. But they learn how to tell jokes."
Aardman has committed to deliver five features to DreamWorks, which does not include the independently financed stop-motion "Wallace & Gromit" feature, the first full-length movie starring the dynamic clay-modeled duo familiar from Aardman's unique-looking, Oscar-winning shorts.
The group also unveiled a preview of the animated comedy, which is directed by Park and Steve Box and will be released stateside Oct. 7. In the film, Wallace and Gromit run a new business, Anti-Pesto, a humane pest control unit hired to catch rabbits by Wallace's new romantic interest, the super-posh Lady Tottingham, voiced by Helena Bonham Carter.
The Aardman crew also showed early artwork from their first CG feature, "Flushed Away," which is to be released in November 2006 and is being produced by Lord and Paxton and a small crew with help from DreamWorks Animation in Glendale. Directed by Sam Fell and David Bowers, the film is about a high-society rat (Hugh Jackman) who gets flushed down the sewer into the grimy Ratropolis below. There he meets the lovely scavenger Rita (Kate Winslet).
"The CG animation is beautifully adhering to the style of stop-motion," Katzenberg said over lunch at the American Pavilion. "It allows you a much more expansive story. It has huge special effects in this watery London/Venice underground."
Park has every intention of making more movies with clay animation, he said: "We can do subtle expressions in clay. Although we could do it with CG in the end -- the technique is secondary to riveting stories."
"We're an animation company who are aware that we do stop-frame animation better than anyone else in the world," Lord said. "We have no intention of giving that up, because it's what we do best. 'Flushed Away' started as stop-frame, but we realized that it wasn't going to work. CG has been quite liberating."
Aardman also showed footage from their early shorts and their first DreamWorks feature, 2000's "Chicken Run," which grossed $230 million worldwide, according to Katzenberg, who noted that the very British movie demonstrated global appeal.
"It's very British, yet it played spectacularly. People enjoy the Englishness of it. It has charm and wit about it," he said.
"These movies are in a visual language that's universal," Park said. "Research was done around the world on Wallace & Gromit awareness outside the U.K. We're best known in Mexico."
DreamWorks marketing chief Terry Press said that despite the falling dollar, she gets good bang for her buck from these Cannes PR events. Last year, Will Smith, Angelina Jolie and Jack Black rode an inflatable shark into the Cannes Harbor to promote "Shark Tale" around the world.
"In terms of an international release, Cannes is the single largest consolidated group of media," Press said. "The U.S. press is gravy, but it's good gravy, because the ones who are here are A-level. If you do it right you have a picture that leaves here and goes all around the world."
John Cleese
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Anne Thompson
CANNES -- DreamWorks Animation SKG and Aardman Animations announced Thursday the fourth film on which they will collaborate, a prehistoric comedy called "Crood Awakening," written by ex-Python regular John Cleese, for 2008 release.
The announcement came as DreamWorks Animation hit the beach at Cannes for the fourth time with a 30-foot-high inflatable nylon Gromit to promote the upcoming feature-length film "Wallace & Gromit -- The Curse of the Were-Rabbit."
Calling the now-traditional visit the "great annual event," DreamWorks animation czar Jeffrey Katzenberg was joined by Aardman co-founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton and "Wallace" creator and director Nick Park at the Palais' Salle Bazin.
Katzenberg said he asked Cleese (who voiced a character in "Shrek 2") to pen the new film from an original story by Lord and Sproxton, who will be executive producers. "The Croods are sensationally unevolved," Lord said. "They haven't got fire, or the wheel. But they learn how to tell jokes."
Aardman has committed to deliver five features to DreamWorks, which does not include the independently financed stop-motion "Wallace & Gromit" feature, the first full-length movie starring the dynamic clay-modeled duo familiar from Aardman's unique-looking, Oscar-winning shorts.
The group also unveiled a preview of the animated comedy, which is directed by Park and Steve Box and will be released stateside Oct. 7. In the film, Wallace and Gromit run a new business, Anti-Pesto, a humane pest control unit hired to catch rabbits by Wallace's new romantic interest, the super-posh Lady Tottingham, voiced by Helena Bonham Carter.
The Aardman crew also showed early artwork from their first CG feature, "Flushed Away," which is to be released in November 2006 and is being produced by Lord and Paxton and a small crew with help from DreamWorks Animation in Glendale. Directed by Sam Fell and David Bowers, the film is about a high-society rat (Hugh Jackman) who gets flushed down the sewer into the grimy Ratropolis below. There he meets the lovely scavenger Rita (Kate Winslet).
"The CG animation is beautifully adhering to the style of stop-motion," Katzenberg said over lunch at the American Pavilion. "It allows you a much more expansive story. It has huge special effects in this watery London/Venice underground."
Park has every intention of making more movies with clay animation, he said: "We can do subtle expressions in clay. Although we could do it with CG in the end -- the technique is secondary to riveting stories."
"We're an animation company who are aware that we do stop-frame animation better than anyone else in the world," Lord said. "We have no intention of giving that up, because it's what we do best. 'Flushed Away' started as stop-frame, but we realized that it wasn't going to work. CG has been quite liberating."
Aardman also showed footage from their early shorts and their first DreamWorks feature, 2000's "Chicken Run," which grossed $230 million worldwide, according to Katzenberg, who noted that the very British movie demonstrated global appeal.
"It's very British, yet it played spectacularly. People enjoy the Englishness of it. It has charm and wit about it," he said.
"These movies are in a visual language that's universal," Park said. "Research was done around the world on Wallace & Gromit awareness outside the U.K. We're best known in Mexico."
DreamWorks marketing chief Terry Press said that despite the falling dollar, she gets good bang for her buck from these Cannes PR events. Last year, Will Smith, Angelina Jolie and Jack Black rode an inflatable shark into the Cannes Harbor to promote "Shark Tale" around the world.
"In terms of an international release, Cannes is the single largest consolidated group of media," Press said. "The U.S. press is gravy, but it's good gravy, because the ones who are here are A-level. If you do it right you have a picture that leaves here and goes all around the world."