The Hollywood Reporter says that Sony Pictures and Aardman Animations are moving forward with two animated features, Arthur Christmas and Pirates!
Aardman co-founder Peter Lord and Jeff Newitt will co-direct Pirates!, a hand-crafted stop-motion animated film such as Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Arthur Christmas will be produced using computer animation.
Pirates! is based on “The Pirates! (in an Adventure with Scientists),” the best-selling series of books by Gideon Defoe. The story follows a group of pirates who journey to London, meet Charles Darwin and a talking chimp named Mister Bobo, and an enemy looking to wipe them out.
Arthur Christmas, for which Aardman is working with Sony Pictures Imageworks, will tackle the question of how Santa delivers all his presents in one night. Sarah Smith and Barry Cook are directing.
