The film was a big box office success

Alan Davidson, from Sussex, is suing for copyright damages against the film's creators Aardman Animation and DreamWorks, said the Telegraph newspaper.

Mr Davidson says the movie's plot is based on his book, Escape From Cold Ditch, says the paper.

Davidson's story concerns a hen that leads the escape of her fellow chickens from a farm in rural England. The paper says he feels it was "bodily appropriated" for the film, which was released in 2000, five years after his book was published.

Davidson is reported to have lodged papers at Lewes County Court saying there are "striking similarities" between the film and book, including plot, characters and settings.

The paper also says the author received an offer from a Hollywood studio in 1998 to turn Escape From Cold Ditch into a film, but this was withdrawn when it was discovered DreamWorks were working on a similar project.

Chicken Run has made almost �135m at cinemas worldwide, not including profits from video and DVD sales and television rights.

A spokesman for Aardman, where animator Nick Park created the Chicken Run characters, told the Telegraph it would defend the litigation.

"We deny that there is any basis whatsoever for Mr Davidson's claim," the spokesman said.

A DreamWorks spokeswoman in Los Angeles said she was not aware that legal action had been launched.

Davidson's novel was made into an audio book read by actress Joanna Lumley in 1998.

Escape from Cold Ditch is still in print in the UK. Davidson has published 16 other children's books.

Chicken Run featured the voices of Mel Gibson, Miranda Richardson, Jane Horrocks, Julia Sawalha and was the first full-length film to be made by Bristol-based Aardman Animations - best known for its Wallace and Gromit films - with Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks company.