This year’s BFI London Film Festival is swapping the red carpet for a chicken run with the world premiere of Aardman’s sequel to the much-loved classic.
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is the latest film by the team behind Wallace & Gromit and Creature Comforts.
Featuring the vocal talents of The Last of Us and Game of Thrones star Bella Ramsey alongside Jane Horrocks, Thandiwe Newton and Imelda Staunton, the film is the sequel to the original Chicken Run which broke records as the highest grossing stop motion film of all time when it was released in 2000.
Festival Director Kristy Matheson said: “We are so excited to be sharing the magic and artistry of the Aardman studio and their favourite feathered friends with audiences this October with a film that’s brimming with fun and has such enormous heart.”
The premiere is at the Royal Festival Hall on Saturday October 14 before the film makes its small screen debut on Netflix on December 15.
This years festival runs from October 4 to 15 with the full programme still to be announced.
Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries Justine Simons OBE said she was “delighted” the film would get its world premiere in the capital.
She said: “London’s annual film festival shows why our capital is a global hub for film and television and after a hugely successful summer for our big screens I’m determined to continue doing all I can to support the growth of the industry as we build a better London for everyone.”
Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival Director, said: “We are so excited to be sharing the magic and artistry of the Aardman studio and their favourite feathered friends with audiences this October with a film that’s brimming with fun and has such enormous heart.”
The festival opens with the new film from actor and director Emerald Fennell.
The star, who played Camilla Parker-Bowles in The Crown and won an Oscar for her screenplay for Promising Young Woman, will bring Saltburn to the capital in October.
It stars Barry Keoghan as a bright young Oxford University student drawn into a world of high society excess.
The festival will close with another actor-turned director Daniel Kaluuya whose directorial debut The Kitchen is set in a dystopian London where the gap between rich and poor has grown to a horrific amount.
Hear Chicken Run writer, John O'Farrell, on this episode of The Evening Standard Theatre Podcast:
