Hugh Grant has signed up for his first animated film, joining the cast of Aardman Animations' stop-motion 3D film The Pirates! Band of Misfits. Grant will voice Pirate Captain, a character described as a "boundlessly enthusiastic, if somewhat less-than-successful, terror of the High Seas."
The voice cast also includes Martin Freeman (currently at work playing Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit), Brendan Gleeson, Russell Tovey, Ashley Jensen, Jeremy Piven, Imelda Staunton, David Tennant, and Salma Hayek. Chicken Run director/founding partner of Aardman Peter Lord is directing the film. Jeff Newitt is co-directing. Gideon Defoe adapted his books for the big screen, with Lord, David Sproxton and Julie Lockhart producing.
"I'm so grateful to the entire cast for their talent and energy," stated Lord. "The characters that they've created fill the screen with life and fun. As the Pirate Captain, Hugh Grant has given a stand-out performance - he combines an effortless on-screen warmth with brilliant comic timing. And as the leader of our motley pirate crew, he shows a real barnstorming, swashbuckling side of his character as well. Only Hugh could anchor this story of love, loyalty, greed, and nautical high-jinks."
The Pirates! Band of Misfits synopsis: "With a rag-tag crew at his side (Freeman, Gleeson, Tovey, and Jensen), and seemingly blind to the impossible odds stacked against him, the Captain has one dream: to beat his bitter rivals Black Bellamy (Piven) and Cutlass Liz (Hayek) to the much coveted Pirate Of The Year Award. It's a quest that takes our heroes from the shores of exotic Blood Island to the foggy streets of Victorian London. Along the way they battle a diabolical queen (Imelda Staunton) and team up with a haplessly smitten young scientist (Tennant), but never lose sight of what a pirate loves best: adventure!"
Columbia Pictures will release The Pirates! in theaters on March 30, 2012.
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(Photo of Hugh Grant by Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images)
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