It has been awhile, but the director of Wallace & Gromit is back for more stop-motion films.
Deadline reported on Wednesday that Nick Park, who also directed Chicken Run, is set to join Studiocanal for his next feature film. The project, titled Early Man, is a caveman comedy that will trace the world’s first game of soccer.
Studiocanal aims to release the film in 2018, ahead of the World Cup. Mark Burton and John O’Farrell have written the script. The company will unveil visuals from the project to buyers at Cannes.
Park has been out of the game since directing Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit in 2005 with his studio, Aardman, most recently releasing Shaun the Sheep.
“This is a very ambitious project, with a lot more characters than Shaun,” added Studiocanal chief exec Olivier Courson. “The film is not about football but it is an important component. Nick and the Aardman guys will come to Cannes. This is a very ambitious project for the independent market. It’s also extremely funny.”