Aardman Animations has announced that it is beginning production this week on The Wallace & Gromit Movie: Curse of the Wererabbit.  The production of the stop-motion animated feature is expected to take 18 months, and the $50 million film is set for a debut in 2005.  The film's storyline finds Wallace & Gromit hunting down a mysterious beast, which has been destroying the local farmers' and gardeners' prize vegetables on the eve of a giant vegetable growing contest.  Two Oscar-nominated actors, Helena Bonham-Carter and Ralph Fiennes, will voice characters from the local nobility.

The Wallace & Gromit property has attracted a serious following among collectors and is responsible for sales of merchandise and tchotchkes way out of proportion to the actual amount of Wallace & Gromit material produced.  The first full length Wallace & Gromit feature could therefore be a real boon to pop culture retailers.  Created by Nick Park, Wallace & Gromit debuted in 1989 in A Grand Day Out, followed by The Wrong Trousers in 1993 and A Close Shave in 1995 -- all short films.  After a seven year hiatus (during which Park made the Chicken Run feature film), Wallace & Gromit returned in 2002 with a collection of 10 very short films (from 1-3 minutes each), which focuses on Wallace's Rube Goldberg-type inventions and is entitled Cracking Contraptions (see 'Wallace & Gromit Return').