Arthur Christmas hits theaters nationwide November 23, and if it’s successful, Sony Pictures Animation and Aardman Animation may just team up for a sequel. I recently had the chance to speak with co-writer/director Sarah Smith, who revealed some very interesting sequel (and prequel) possibilities as a follow-up to Arthur Christmas.
Take a look at what she had to say below.
“Well,
Pete and I see the story as a one-off as well. We have, of course, talked about it. I think our feeling is sort of like the
Toy Story effect, don’t do it unless you have another story that works for you. Of the ideas we like the most, we quite like the idea of a prequel, the Grand-Santa story in the old sleigh, maybe during wartime. That would be fun. We’ve also talked about ideas such as a naughty child, finding their way to the North Pole and getting their way in (Laughs). The other one was an idea about Arthur and a team of elves, and they get cut off. They’re out in this field, and it’s kind of like a war mission. It would be like
District 9 or
Battle: Los Angeles (Laughs).”
Despite how intriguing these sequel possibilities sound, don’t expect to hear any development on an Arthur Christmas follow-up quite yet.
“I’ve spent five years making this, and I just finished it about a month ago, so I’m basically just crawling over the finish line (Laughs). The thought of doing it all again seems completely impossible at the moment. It also seems impossible that I won’t do it all again, but right now, I’m just looking forward to Christmas. Actual Christmas, instead of
Arthur Christmas.”
clickHere to read my full interview with writer-director Sarah Smith for Arthur Christmas.
Arthur Christmas comes to theaters November 23rd, 2011 and stars James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy, Ashley Jensen, Imelda Staunton. The film is directed by Barry Cook, Sarah Smith.
