Ahead of the world premiere of the long-awaited sequel ‘Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” at the BFI London Film Festival, the team behind the Aardman production revealed that they set out to make a “feminist classic” that was also an “homage to heist movies”.
“Dawn of the Nugget comes 23 years after the release of the original Chicken Run. In the sequel, Ginger (Thandiwe Newton) and Rocky (Zachary Levi) embark on another dangerous adventure when their daughter Molly (Bella Ramsey) flees their idyllic island home for the mainland.
“The last one was an homage to escape movies, and this one is an homage to heist movies,” said writer Karey Kirkpatrick, who also wrote the first Chicken Run. “John [O’Farrell] and I started this film in 2014, and we actually started it as an inside joke. We knew it was a heist film, but what’s the diamond in this heist for chickens? They don’t care about money. So we thought, “The diamond is a child.
O’Farrell added that the story originally focused on a father-son relationship, but he and screenwriter Rachel Tunnard decided to focus on the chickens instead.
“We did two drafts of a father-son story and then all the women at Aardman said, ‘What are you doing? This is a feminist classic!'” O’Farrell said. “Ginger is a feminist hero, an icon, and so we said, ‘OK, you’re right, we’re going to make it a mother-daughter story.'”
Director Sam Fell was also present at the premiere – which, due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, did not include any of the stars of the voice cast – and explained why it took so long to make another Chicken Run film.
“The bar was so high, I just knew we had to come up with something at least as great, on its own terms,” Fell said. “So many people love it that we had to do it justice, which is why it took almost a quarter of a century.”
The sequel was well received at the London Film Festival, with many laughs and enthusiastic cheers throughout the screening. Audience members were greeted at their seats by a “Dawn of the Nugget” poster and engaged in chicken puns as they waited for the film to start.
“Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” will be released on Netflix on 15 December.
