THN have received news from STUDIOCANAL and Aardman Animations that they are to team up and produce the movie debut of one of their most popular animated characters – SHAUN THE SHEEP! The baaamazing little fella was first seen in the Oscar winning short film A CLOSE SHAVE, and since then the world’s most famous sheep (aside from Chris The Sheep in Father Ted) and his flock have been enthralling TV audiences in over 170 countries since.
The film is set to be shot in Aardman’s trademark style of stop motion animation and is written and directed by Richard Starzak (aka Golly) and Mark Burton. STUDIOCANAL is financing and will distribute the film in UK, France, Germany, Australia and New Zealand and handle international sales. Olivier Courson, STUDIOCANAL Chairman and CEO had this to day:
”We are so thrilled to join the Flock! Shaun is a character you love at first sight whatever your age. We are really happy to work with Aardman, it’s such a talented team!”
David Sproxton, Executive Chairman and co-founder of Aardman added:
“Shaun and his friends have a massive global following and we very excited about being able to put them into a bigger adventure for the big screen. We are naturally also very excited about partnering with STUDIOCANAL for this project, their track record and expertise in international film financing and distribution seems a perfect fit.”
For those you wondering about the plot details, it’s complex multi-layered think-piece based around the life of Swiss psychotherapist and psychiatrist Carl Jung, no wait, it’s much better:
When Shaun’s mischief inadvertently leads to the Farmer being taken away from the farm, Shaun, Bitzer and the flock have to go into the big city to rescue him, setting the stage for an epic adventure.
I’m looking forward to new adventures, Aardman’s work always has oodles of charm and fun and I’m pretty sure there’s a lot of surprises to come as well. It’s early days in production at the moment – of course – but we’ll be keeping a distant eye out on that talented studio and to celebrate, here’s a classic sheep-shot from Aardman:
