Make no mistake about it, the past 24-hours have been very exciting for animation enthusiasts. Early yesterday afternoon, LAIKA Studios – the makers of such stop-motion animated films as PARANORMAN, THE BOXTROLLS, and KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS – announced that they're hard at work developing their fifth full-length animated feature, which is tentatively called FILM FIVE.
As if that news isn't cool enough already, The Hollywood Reporter has now shared that Aardman Animation is officially working on a sequel to CHICKEN RUN! According to THR, the follow-up to Aardman's record-breaking box office smash is being co-developed by StudioCanal, and Pathe, who co-financed the original with Dreamworks and distributed it throughout Europe. While details surrounding the sequel are scrace at this time, we do know that PARANORMAN and FLUSHED AWAY director Sam Fell will be helming the new project for Aardman. He will shoot from a script penned by Karey Kirkpatrick (OVER THE HEDGE, SMURFS 2, THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES) and John O'Farrell, who jointly wrote the original CHICKEN RUN, back int he day.
In Peter Lord and Nick Park's CHICKEN RUN, a cockerel apparently flies into a chicken farm, which leads the chickens to seeing him as an opportunity to escape their evil owners. Filled with dark humor and danger around every fence post, CHICKEN RUN remains the most successful stop-motion animated film of all time. At the close of the film's theatrical run, Aardman earned a global total of $225 million in ticket sales for their high-flying adventure.
The sequel to CHICKEN RUN will likely go into production at Aardman's studio in Bristol shortly after wrapping on SHUAN THE SHEEP MOVIE FARMAGEDDON. the sequel to the studio's 2015 family film SHUAN THE SHEEP MOVIE.