Aardman’s next?

We ran an article back in November about the break-up of DreamWorks and Aardman so I’m not exactly sure why that same news is so newsworthy today but it’s likely because the break is now officially official. At the time of that original article DreamWorks was hopeful FLUSHED AWAY, Aardman’s last film, would be able to gross $80-90 million but in the end it only grossed about $64 million making a divorce even more of a done deal. The unfortunate reality for Aardman is that there’s no clear future. The only project they have on their slate is the CBS series “Creature Comforts” that’s expected to be a mid-season replacement later this year. As for feature projects, nothing has been announced and the one project they were developing, CROOD AWAKENING, has reverted to DreamWorks where they seem content to let the caveman flick die a slow death. Aardman always made quality flicks but for whatever reason they didn’t click with US audiences (with the exception of CHICKEN RUN, which did moderately well). I’d love to see them revisit the TORTOISE AND THE HARE movie but now they’ll need to find a new home or new financing to get a feature project underway.