One of these days, I really have to see the Wallace & Gromit movie. Not that I’m exactly concerned about purity when a sorta-indie jumps up to the majors, as Aardman Animation did with Dreamworks, but Chicken Run nearly put me off my feed with respect to the animation house, and I was afraid that Curse Of The Were-Rabbit would erase most of my interest in Wallace & Gromit.

Now I know that the next W&G project will be one I’ll be able to jump into enthusiastically, since the dissolution of the Dreamworks deal (and new first-look situation with Sony notwithstanding) sees the house about to enter production on a new W&G short, to air on the BBC at the end of ext year.

Judging by the Nick Park quote in Variety, I’m not the only one happy to see him out of the studio system. "It’s nice to be out of that feature film pressure now. I’m making this for myself again and the people who love Wallace and Gromit."

Trouble At’ Mill is the title of the upcoming 30-minute joint, and it describes what happens when "Wallace and Gromit open a bakery but Wallace becomes sidetracked by a love interest, Piella Bakewell. With his master distracted, Gromit is left to solve a murder."

Nick Park is co-writing with A Close Shave and The Wrong Trousers collaborator Bob Baker.

There’s an interview with Park up now at Wallaceandgromit.com, where the filmmakers will be publishing regular video updates over the course of production.