Sam Fell “always wanted” to follow up “Chicken Run,” but he had trouble coming up with a plot.
The 57-year-old director has been attempting for years to come up with a concept to build on the popularity of the 2000 hit movie, which centers on a group of chickens destined to lay eggs on a Yorkshire chicken farm. However, he revealed that the reason “Dawn of the Nugget,” which will be released in the near future, took so long to complete was because stop-motion animation is such a “big operation.”
The new trailer for ‘CHICKEN RUN 2’ has been released.
Releasing December 15 on Netflix. pic.twitter.com/mApNzQmBca
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) November 15, 2023
To Collider, he said, “It’s a big operation.” When you compare it to the larger studios, Aardman, it’s not a very large studio. They can run three feature films [at once] since they have two or three pipelines operating. It seemed obvious that a Wallace and Gromit movie would be made, and it was fantastic and clever. From then on, I believe I’ve been bouncing ideas around constantly. Over the past 20 years, I have attended meetings throughout the years. Although I’ve always wanted to, it has taken me a while to discover a tale deserving of a sequel.”
The forthcoming movie will center on Ginger and Rocky, two chickens who fled to a different farm and greeted a newcomer before a danger claimed their life.
The first movie is still the highest-grossing stop-motion animated movie ever made, but Sam is hopeful that by releasing the sequel on Netflix, it will reach a larger “gradual audience” than if it relied solely on box office revenues and an opening weekend.
“I think many filmmakers who produce films for streaming services still think in terms of cinema,” he stated. In my opinion, Netflix really promotes it. You are not pressured to create it for a smaller screen by them. They’re fantastic. They really are, despite the fact that I’ve heard this before: “They’re so great to work with.” They are really motivating. They’ve really expanded the creative possibilities, in my opinion, because you can now reach a far wider audience—that is, an audience anywhere in the world—rather of being limited to the first weekend’s box office earnings. You can definitely make things more unusual and yet be sure that people will find you, in my opinion. It’s not limited to that first weekend of launch.”
On December 15, “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” will be available on Netflix.