founder of Aardman, this  films original concept involved pirates, and was pitched to  Dreamworks soon after the release of _Chicken Run (2000)_ (qv).  However, Aardman were told that there was no market for pirate films  (this was before  _Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)_ (qv)  was made), and were told to modernize the concept. By the time the  writer had done this, the project was temporarily shelved to make  way for the production of  _Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were