Aardman: An Epic Journey by Peter Lord;Dave Sproxton;Nick Park;

Author:Peter Lord;Dave Sproxton;Nick Park; [Lord, Peter and Sproxton, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

10

CHICKEN RUN

The Academy Award triumph for A Close Shave was a source of delight to DreamWorks, who were now more eager than ever to get their Aardman film into production. Jeffrey Katzenberg’s words from the night of ‘the Big Pitch’ now echoed in Peter’s brain: ‘So, guys, when can we see the script?’

The short answer: ‘Not yet.’

Peter and Nick had given it some thought, but neither of them had really gone through the process of identifying a suitable screenwriter who would meet with them and work towards delivering – possibly after several drafts – a script that was fit for purpose. In this particular area of the film business, they were still novices.

They made a bright start, however, choosing Jack Rosenthal as a strong candidate for the job. He was both a screenwriter and an admired playwright, with an impressive, varied list of credits. During his long career, Jack had written the delightful TV drama Bar Mitzvah Boy, more than one hundred episodes of Coronation Street in its earlier days, and the well-received TV play Spend, Spend, Spend about Viv Nicholson, the glamorous, reckless wife of a big winner on the football pools. Most remarkably, he had also collaborated with Barbra Streisand on the screenplay of her 1983 film Yentl.

By the time they met Jack, he was in his early sixties, still prolific and at the height of his writing powers. They soon commissioned him. He was funny, accomplished and versatile – just the kind of writer they were looking for.

Peter and Nick first met him in a hotel in London and talked over their idea for the chicken story, after which two more meetings followed in Bristol. A lot of talking and swapping ideas was involved, and then Jack went away to write a first draft.

‘Jack told us he couldn’t write gags,’ David recalls, ‘but that was okay with us. We needed a story structure and an emotional backbone to the story.’

There was nothing technically wrong with Jack’s first draft, but it felt like a million miles away from what Peter and Nick had envisaged in their heads. They were both used to an extended collaborative process, but they had clearly failed to get across the gist of the story they wanted. In retrospect, it dawned on them that they should have taken note of the good things about his script – and there were many – while persuading him to work with them and refine his story, bringing it closer to what they had in mind. At this point, however, they simply did not know enough about the writing process to do anything along those lines. Feeling more than a little embarrassed, they decided to look for another writer. But who?

Once again, Jake Eberts proved to be an invaluable source of advice. He recommended Karey Kirkpatrick, who had the script of James and the Giant Peach among his credits. Maybe he could do something similar on behalf of Chicken Run? Jake duly arranged a meeting between them and Karey at a deli in Santa Monica.

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