The Aardman team is helping with an open countryside project that aims to inform people about their rights and responsibilites toward open countryside in the UK.
The new version of the code, first introduced in the Fifties, aims to prepare everyone for the introduction of the public’s new right of access to the countryside. –Cumberland News
You can visit the new Countryside Access website at: www.countrysideaccess.gov.uk
Aardman sent out emails today advertising some job positions that have opened on the set of the Wallace and Gromit movie!
Of course the studio is in Bristol, UK, and you need to be able to work in the UK to apply for any of these positions. See http://www.aardman.com/culture/jobs.html for more information.
Wallace and Gromit’s Children’s Foundation presents another “Wrong Trousers Day” this year. It will be taking place on Friday July 2nd, and this year they are selling merchandise to promote and help the fund drive!
See the Wrong Trousers Day Website for more information on the event: http://www.wrongtrousersday.org
Click here to purchase merchandise, all Profits from the sale of this merchandising go to Wallace and Gromit’s Children’s Foundation.
The new projected release date for the Wallace and Gromit movie has moved from September 30th 2005 to October 7th 2005. The reason for the change is that Universal’s Curious George is going to be released September 30th, and they don’t want the releases to coincide.
According to the latest Wallace and Gromit newsletter:
We are delighted to introduce a new range of collectable porcelain figurines featuring Wallace & Gromit from Coalport Characters, part of the world renowned Wedgwood Group.
Nine beautiful figurines are now available to start your collection. These include two standard figures and a limited edition figure from each of the three films.
More characters will be released throughout 2004.
Click here to see the rest of the figurines and shop!
I have also recently discovered a few threads going on the forums for the Wallace and Gromit movie next year:
http://imdb.com/title/tt0312004/
Looks like Ralph Fiennes will be a voice actor in it! YAY!
The following was sent to me by G.W.:
I recently contacted David Graber, Head of Business Affairs for DreamWorks Home Entertainment, by E-mail (dgraber@dreamworks.com). I asked if Dreamworks (who has distribution rights within the US of the Wallace and Gromit film collection) has any future plans dealing with the original Wallace and Gromit features. He replied with some news that excited me, and I thought I might share with you.
David said (and I quote here). “Our current plans are to release A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers, A Close Shave, and Cracking Contraptions (all 10 shorts) on DVD later this year.” This is great news, even though the original 3 films have had DVD treatments in the US before(two actually). But this time the 10 shorts of Cracking Contraptions will also be released in the US (for the first time). And the DVD will hold some special features. No official listing of features yet, but some may be “new to DVD” and some we’ve probably seen or heard before on previous releases (either on older US or UK DVDs of Wallace and Gromit). But Dreamworks is planning a fully loaded DVD of all the existing Wallace and Gromit works in anticipation of the Wallace and Gromit Movie in October. No set release date yet, but it will be here by the end of the year. David said more information will be made available on the DVD once it is finalized and available. This is only for the US (region 1 DVD), Dreamworks does not have the distribution rights for the earlier works outside the US (say in the UK or Europe).
Very exciting news, thanks again G.W.!
According to Aardman, Wallace and Gromit recently signed a deal with Jacobs crackers so that they will be the “cracker” of wallace and gromit, which will include their pictures on their boxes of Jacobs Cream Crackers.
Their films have always featured crackers, so why now, and after so long, are our much-loved duo linking up with their favourite food? “Pressure from Gromit,” says Wallace. “We are just about to go into 18 months of fi lming, so Gromit wanted to make sure that we have all our creature comforts close to hand.” (source, www.aardman.com)
To celebrate this partnership, Jacobs crackers is sponsoring a contest to win a trip to New York City, see www.jacobsgranddayout.com/ for more details.
They are now selling Wallace and Gromit 2004 Calendars at the aardman store! Also, for those of you who also follow Nick Park’s older stuff, they now have a “Creature Comforts Shop” where you can pick up all sorts of things, including some merchandise from the actual Creature Comfort movie. My favorite so far? Plush toy of Frank the Tortoise. It seems they will be adding more items in the near future.
“Feathers wants to make diamonds. Lots of diamonds. And he’ll stop at nothing to achieve his dream.”
I believe that the official release date for this game in the US is Friday October 3rd. I’m so excited!
It was previously assumed that the title for this movie would be “The Great Vegetable Plot” but they have been working with other titles like: “Wallace & Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit” and “Wallace & Gromit in The Were-Rabbit” (this is what Entertainment Weekly referred to it as in a July 2003 article). Officially Dreamworks is currently calling it “The Wallace & Gromit Movie” and production is scheduled to begin this month.
New expected release date? September 30, 2005.