EXCLUSIVE: 20th Century Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios have set its voice cast for Epic, the new 3D CG-animated film by the makers of Ice Age and Rio. The Dan Shere-scripted film, which had been developed under the title Leafmen, will star Beyonce Knowles as Queen Tara, Colin Farrell as Ronin, The Hunger Games‘ Josh Hutcherson as Nod, Amanda Seyfried as Mary Katherine, Johnny Knoxville as Mandrake, Aziz Ansari as Mub, rapper Pitbull as Bufo, Jason Sudeikis as Bomba, and Aerosmith and American Idol frontman Steven Tyler as Nim Galuu. Blake Anderson and Judah Friedlander are also in the cast.
The film is directed by Ice Age helmer Chris Wedge, with Lori Forte and Jerry Davis producing. It is described as a battle deep in the forest between the forces of good and evil. When a teenaged girl finds herself magically transported into this secret universe, she must band together with a rag-tag team of fun and whimsical characters to save that world, which in turn saves the real world. Epic will be released May 24, 2013.
This becomes the first movie project for Beyonce since she took time off for maternity leave. She is also attached to star in the Clint Eastwood-directed remake of A Star Is Born for Warner Bros.
Oh dear… Fox Animation is a mess.
How’s that? Sounds like a big project with a great marketable cast.
“big project” basically sums it up. Not a “good” project or even a “good” idea.
I’m sure people will be lining up to hear Colin Farrell’s voice or Steven Tyler’s…
Everyone together now… “Hi Bets.”
Marketable for an apparently straight animated fantasy? I think Blue Sky is actually worse than DreamWorks when it comes to randomly casting then-tendy names.
More like an “Epic” project.
Sorry, it had to be said.
“Epic”? Really? What’s the follow-up going to be called, “Sequel”?
If you’re a writer, or have a project that you wish to stay involved in, I wouldn’t do it at Fox Animation. A few people I know who have written for them will not go back. The execs just don’t know what they’re doing, though they put on a good “song and dance” to convince you.
That sounds like a really cute movie.
Randy Jackson is going to be cast in Fox Animation’s next movie. J Lo in Ice Age, Tyler in this thing, and Randy will probably play a bird in the follow up to the crappy Rio (that I’ve had to sit through twice with my kids).
Epic? Hmm….Pixar does “Brave” and Blue Sky follows with “Epic”.
Pixar Community College it is.
Lame.
Blue Sky is called Pixar Community College for a reason.
Yeah, the reason is Pixar hires more people from Blue Sky than any other studio.
I guess people are more eager to get out of that place. Read the comments on Cartoon Brew.
I don’t doubt it, my point is Pixar wouldn’t be taking those people if they were second rate hacks. And in case you didn’t know, Pixar was ready to make this movie with Chris Wedge before Fox took it back.
Ooo i cant wait to hear Beyonce’s animated voice it’s going to be cool especially for Blue Ivy, am i’m right.
I’m excited to hear Josh Hutcherson do some voice acting! The plot sounds interesting. Can’t judge the movie until you’ve seen it though.
For Josh Hutcherson it will be already third work with animation, his voice is interesting and funny even in interviews on TV, and Amanda also has good voice jobs in her movies.
I loved Ice age and Rio, so i have a good expectations on that one.
The original Ice Age was fun (back in 2002). RIO was terrible. Almost unwatchable. In a weak year like last year, it couldn’t even get a Best Animated Picture nomination. That’s saying a lot. Shows what the animation community thinks of them.
Look at the trailer for Ice Age 4. It looks horrible. And I’m usually excited to see any of the movies from the big animation companies.
I don’t like too much even Ice Age 3. But this film director will be Chris Wedge from Ice Age 1 and one of my personal favorites – Robots. So I prefer to be optimistic and wait for great adventure))
Beyonce is so desperate to be a movie star- that is not even funny.
I hope they got Beyonce to sing 5 songs on the soundtrack because that’s the only reason an audience would want to hear her voice (as opposed to seeing her in person).
“I hope they got Beyonce to sing 5 songs on the soundtrack…”
If they do, I hope they keep her stuff separate from the great Danny Elfman (he’s scoring this one, so John Powell can finally take a break).
She’s already a movie star. She had the highest debut by a singer turned actress in box office history. Her movies combined have grossed well over half- a billion dollars! She’s been nominated for two golden globes. I think it’s safe to say she’s a star otherwise they wouldn’t be after her to be apart of these films.
Agreed!!!
her movis combined have grossed well over Half a billion dollars.
i love josh hutcherson !!!!!!!!!!!
Can’t people reserve judgement a bit until they’ve at least seen the trailor? This is going to be a visually ambitious film that I think is going to surprise people.