Aardman lines up link with Spielberg

AARDMAN Animations looks set to swap drizzly Bristol for sunnyHollywood to make a film set in the sewers of London.

The Bristol-based creators of Wallace and Gromit creators arethought to be heading to Hollywood to make the movie with StevenSpielberg's Dreamworks Pictures.

The film has the working title Flushed Away and is said to followthe adventures of a posh rat who is accidentally flushed from hisluxury London penthouse into the sewer system.

Horrified at the conditions, he tries to escape but during hisjourney the rat falls in love with the world beneath the streets andthe characters who live there.

Dick Clement and Ian LaFrenais, the writing team who brought usThe Likely Lads and Auf Wiedersehen Pet, are thought to be lined upto write the screenplay.

An Aardman spokesman was reluctant to talk about the project butconfirmed plans were being drawn up.

Dreamworks and Aardman had a huge hit in 2000 with Chicken Run,with the voices of Mel Gibson and Miranda Richardson.

But Aardman's most recent attempt to produce an animationblockbuster ended when production of The Tortoise And The Hare wasput on hold after bosses decided the script was not up to scratch.

Up to 150 animators taken on for the GBP25 million project werelaid off.