Aardman has teamed up with French-based production and distribution company StudioCanal for its latest comedy adventure film: Early Man. The release dates for the movie have just been announced but, sadly, we are in for a long wait.

StudioCanal is co-financing the movie and will distribute in its own territories: the UK, France, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand. Release dates for movies are usually announced early in the game to put their “stamp” on the upcoming movies’ calendar. The current release dates are:

UK: January 26th 2018
France: January 31st 2018
Germany: March 29th 2018
Australia/NZ: March 29th 2018

The release date for the US is yet to be announced, but StudioCanal have already determined a worldwide release. Aardman’s previous theatrical feature film Shaun the Sheep Movie also had its release in Europe early in the year with showings later in the summer for the US. Let’s hope it won’t be too much of a long wait this time around.

Early Man is a stop-motion feature film by BAFTA and Academy Award winning director Nick Park. It’s Park’s first feature film since the Academy Award winning Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-rabbit. Speaking of which, the teaser poster for Early Man does look like a prehistoric version of Wallace and his dog Gromit. Will there be a link?

The plot certainly sounds like the perfect project for Park and Aardman. It will be set at the “dawn of time” when dinosaurs roamed the earth. It tells the story of how one plucky caveman sets off to unite his tribe against a mighty enemy to save the day.