Fans of Nick Park’s clay-made man and dog Wallace and Gromit are delighted with today’s news that production of a new W&G film will start momentarily. Titled “Trouble at Mill” the 30-minute short will return Park back to the shorter length productions that first brought the world’s attention on the dimly inventor and his smarter pooch. This time the two decide to open a bakery but instead of running his new business Wallace starts spending too much time chasing after a lovely lady named Piella Bakewell. While Wallace is off chasing his heart’s desire it’s up to Gromit to bake breads, run the shop and also solve a murder!

“I’m making this for myself again and the people who love Wallace and Gromit,” said Nick Park at the announcement of the new W&G film. “I love making films for the cinema, but the production of ‘Chicken Run‘ and ‘Curse of the Were-Rabbit‘ were virtually back to back, and each film took five years to complete. ‘Trouble at’ Mill’ will be so much quicker to make, and I can’t wait to get back into production.”

Work will begin on “Trouble at Mill” in January in Bristol and everyone involved plans on having the show complete for broadcast on BBC1 at Christmas in 2008.

The first business arrangement between Aardman Animation and Hollywood proved to be a disappointment with both parties. After a highly publicized announcement that the creators of Wallace and Gromit had signed a deal in 1999 with Steven Spielberg’s powerful DreamWorks Pictures movie studio to deliver animated films. The duo’s first release, “Chicken Run“, earned admirable box office dollars when it was released in the summer of 2000 but it took five years before the next Aardman movie, “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” was ready for theaters. That picture only made a reasonable return but it was the failure of “Flushed Away” that ultimately signaled the dissolution between Aardman and DreamWorks. The two companies signaled that they were parting ways in January and that Aardman was seeking out new partnerships for its future endeavors. Now it seems that the time is right to announce that deal.

Aardman has arranged a new partnership with Sony Pictures, the studio that recently made the CG animation film “Open Season“. Under the terms of the Aardman/Sony pact, the British animation company would bring its latest projects first to Sony for worldwide distribution for the next three years. Aardman also revealed that they currently have five new projects in various stages of development including a new “Wallace & Gromit” idea that may take the shape of a short film or a feature length movie. Another movie project is a version of “The Tortoise and the Hare“, an idea that was originally developed for DreamWorks by Aardman but fell apart due to creative differences between the two companies.