Image copyright Twentieth Century Fox Image caption The original Chicken Run remains the highest-grossing stop-motion animation film of all-time

"Rocky and Ginger are coming home to roost!" with Chicken Run 2 in development, Aardman has announced.

The Oscar-winning animation studio hasn't set a release date yet. Its announcement comes 18 years after the original flew onto the big screen.

Chicken Run is the highest-grossing stop-motion animation film of all-time - banking £161.3m at the box office.

ParaNorman's Sam Fell will direct with Shaun the Sheep's Paul Kewley producing, Hollywood Reporter said.

It added that Aardman co-founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton are executive producing.

The original film was directed by Lord and Nick Park, who created Wallace and Gromit, but Park does not currently appear to be attached to the sequel.

Chicken Run centred around a group of chickens, including Rocky and Ginger, desperate to escape the evil Mrs Tweedy's clutches before her Yorkshire farm is turned into a chicken pot pie factory.

Aardman will resume animation duties for the sequel, developing in collaboration with distributors StudioCanal and Pathe.

It has not been confirmed if members of the original cast - including Julia Sawalha as Ginger and Mel Gibson as laid-back American cockerel Rocky Rhodes, will return to voice their respective characters.

Aardman added in its tweet that the sequel will follow the new Shaun the Sheep instalment, due for release in 2019.

The announcement follows a number of long-awaited sequels in recent years, including Blade Runner 2049 and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

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