Sam Fell "always wanted" to make a sequel to 'Chicken Run' but struggled to find a story.
The 57-year-old director has been trying for years to come up with a concept to follow the success of the 2000 hit film - which follows a band of chickens doomed to a life of egg-laying on a Yorkshire chicken farm - but explained that the upcoming 'Dawn of the Nugget' took so long because it is stop-motion animation is such a "big operation."
He told Collider: "It is a big operation. It’s not a huge studio, Aardman, when you compare it to the big studios. You know, they have two or three pipelines running, they can run three feature films [at once]. They were clearly going to make a Wallace and Gromit movie, which they did, which was amazing and brilliant. I think from there, I’ve always been kicking the ideas around. I've been to meetings over the decades, the last 20 years. I've always wanted to, but it's taken a long time to find a story, the story that's worthy of the next chapter."
The upcoming film will focus on chickens Ginger and Rocky who, having escaped to a new farm, welcome a new arrival before a threat takes over their lives.
The initial film remains the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film in history but the sequel will be released on Netflix and Sam is hoping that in doing that, the film will attain a more "gradual audience" than if they were relying on an opening weekend and sales at the box office.
He said: "I think a lot of people who make films for streaming still think cinematically. I think Netflix encourages it, really. They don't push you to make it for a smaller screen. They are great. I've heard it before, 'They're so great to work with,' but they actually are. They are incredibly encouraging. I think they've opened up the parameters for creativity so much because you're not stuck with this opening weekend box office results, and you can find an audience a little more gradually, and a much wider audience, a worldwide audience across the globe, you know? I think, yes, you can make things more unusual and know that it will find its audience. It doesn't have to be just in that opening weekend."
'Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget' will be released on Netflix on December 15.