Aardman Animations and DreamWorks have announced an amicable end to
their business association.
A four film relationship was established in 2000 with the release of
Chicken Run. Then followed Curse
of The Were-Rabbit in 2005 and Flushed
Away in 2006.
Despite the Oscar and general popularity of Curse
of The Were-Rabbit it just didn't make enough money to break even. At
the time, forecasts from DreamWorks guessed that Flushed
Away was also going to cost them dearly.
And so it did. Costing over £70M to make but only drawing about £25M from the
box office is not anyone's idea of good business practice. It certainly does not
go down well in Hollywood.
Have you done the maths? That's only three of the original four film deal.
Crood Awakening has been co-written by John Cleese has a release date
for 2008. Whether either side will still risk the potential losses of releasing
it, is unknown and a wrangle over the rights of the production could keep the
project in development hell for decades.
Aardman and DreamWorks have both voiced their calm resignation over the
split. Aardman spokesperson, Arthur Sheriff, said, "We always knew America would
be a hard task for us … our strength is our English sense of humour and we want
to continue with that."
And long may they do so, no matter what Hollywood thinks.
