Sony to team with animator

Wallace and Gromit have a new home in Hollywood.

Aardman Features, the Oscar-winning British animation house, is poised to enter a three-year deal to produce animated movies financed and distributed by Sony Pictures Entertainment, the companies said Monday.

“It’s pretty much a unique voice in the world of animation,” said Michael Lynton, Sony Pictures chairman and chief executive.

The announcement comes two months after DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. ended its ties with Aardman, following the box-office failure last fall of “Flushed Away,” a costly comedy about sewer rats for which the Glendale studio was forced to take a $109-million write-down. In addition, DreamWorks’ fast production pace and aggressive marketing never meshed with Aardman’s more laid-back European approach to moviemaking.

Aardman’s founders are counting on a more compatible relationship with Sony, which is expected to give the Bristol, England-based company a wider degree of autonomy to pursue the computer-animated and stop-motion films that are its signature.

Aardman co-founder David Sproxton praised Sony, predicting the company would “encourage us to do our finest work.”

Sony is counting on Aardman’s distinctive filmmaking style, which produced the hit “Chicken Run” and the Oscar-winning “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,” to help round out the studio’s animation offerings that include the upcoming feature “Surf’s Up.” Sony launched its venture into the crowded animation genre last year with “Open Season,” a moderate success.

Lynton said another attractive feature is that Aardman’s films tend to do well in overseas markets that are increasingly important to the studio.

Under the deal, brokered by talent agency Endeavor and Gotham Group, Sony has first crack at Aardman projects and could distribute and finance two films over the next three years.

richard.verrier@latimes.com