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EAT BRITAIN
EAT BRITAIN
Hollywood’s flirtation with London and its environs is, perhaps, understandable. But an increase in scheduled flights between LAX and Bristol may come as more of a surprise to those who don’t know about the Aardman success story.
The spiritual home to characters such as Morph and Wallace & Gromit, the expansion into new studio and office space in Bristol has coincided with Aardman Animations’ boldest project, a full length feature entitled Chicken Run. In partnership with DreamWorks SKG - and in particular with Jeffrey Katzenberg, the man behind the revival in Disney anima- tion’s fortunes in the mid 80s - things are working smoothly towards the film’s June 2000 release date.
Along with Nick Park and David Sproxton, Peter Lord is the recognisable face of Aardman, and has co-written the story of Chicken Run as well as co-direct- ing it with Park. A typically wry and inventive tale, it is set on a Yorkshire chicken farm in 1950, and pits two heroic birds against the wicked farmer and his wife who want to turn them into pie fill- ing. Think of a stiff upper beaked PoW movie from the era and you won’t be far
off it. But the nice thing about Aardman’s success is that everyone seems genuinely happy to be there, and are all working towards the same ultimate goal.
“We are a pretty happy ship,” com- ments Lord during a break in filming. “I don’t know quite where the chemistry comes from but it’s tremendous. I’m always amazed. There are very few peo- ple here who spend their time telling oth- ers what to do, because we have an awful lot of self motivated people. They get on with it for the love it, and that does make for a very good atmosphere.”
One important source of motivation for a crew that devotes several hours to creating seconds of screen footage is see- ing rushes of the film on a big screen.
“That’s the best thing,” Lord agrees, “seeing it in the cinema, because it’s a funny old process. Everyone is expected to work away on these tiny little
parts of the thing, and every day it’s a really tiny focus on one shot that may last two and a half seconds, so it’s very hard to get any kind of perspective on it. The animators and model mak- ers are required to work in that scale and be focused and perfec-
tionist, so it’s rare to then step back and all your efforts suddenly as part of the whole story.”
Having only established the formal relationship with DreamWorks after pro- duction began, Lord and his collabora- tors might have seen to be taking a risk in going ahead at all. But he sees it slightly differently.
“We certainly hadn’t got the details with DreamWorks refined at all,” he adds. “But that’s the joy of working with Hollywood, because you can start on an understanding, you really can. They have this immense economic back up and con- fidence so you’re confident of starting, safe in the knowledge that it can be fund- ed. Funnily enough you hesitate to start on a much smaller project, for a much smaller budget. There’s something about their confidence and professionalism
when it comes to producing films. That’s what they do.”
After Chicken Run the deal extends to four more features, the next of which - based on the fable of The Tortoise & The Hare - is already in the early stages of pre-production. But the scale and scope of those future films
will doubtless be based on the success of this first feature. And on paper it looks good, with a screenplay by Jack Rosenthal and Karey Kirkpatrick, and a first rate voice cast that includes Julia Sawalha, Miranda Richardson, Jane Horrocks, Phil Daniels, Timothy Spall and Mel Gibson. Yes, Mel Gibson.
Gibson was something of a coup, Lord chuckles, as if he can’t quite believe his luck. “He was a Wallace & Gromit fan, he knew the films and had shown them to his kids. That was a great help. He was very committed from that point of view, but we were still very chuffed to get him.”
So Hollywood really does extend to Bristol, in a way. But this is, finally, the fact that stands as the most impressive of all the achievements so far met by Peter Lord and his talented friends at Aardman. To have built their empire away from the capital speaks volumes for their energy, imagination and determination.
“I’m very proud of the fact that we’ve built a studio in Bristol,” he adds, “and made a string of films here. I think that’s a pretty good going, and I’m extremely proud of it.” And so he should be. ■ Anwar Brett
Photos opposite page from left to right: scenes from Love’s Labour’s Lost; Director Kenneth Branagh; Silicon Media’s Managing Director Dr Selly Saini
Top left: Peter Lord, co-writer and co-direcor of Chicken Run; top right: Lord with co-writer/director Nick Park and below: Rocky in Chicken Run charms the inhabitants of Hut 17
HOLLYWOOD BRISTOL
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