Hugh Grant lands Band of Misfits role

Culver City - Hugh Grant will voice the lead role alongside an all-star cast in The Pirates! Band of Misfits, the new stop-motion, 3D, animated film produced by Aardman Animations for Sony Pictures Animation. The film, which will be distributed by Columbia Pictures, will be released March 30, 2012 in North America. South Africans will see the film on the 12th of April 2012 when it releases across the country.

Hugh Grant, starring in his first animated role, is the bearded Pirate Captain – a boundlessly enthusiastic, if somewhat less-than-successful, terror of the High Seas. 

With a rag-tag crew at his side (Martin Freeman, Brendan Gleeson, Russell Tovey, and Ashley Jensen), and seemingly blind to the impossible odds stacked against him, the Captain has one dream: to beat his bitter rivals Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven) and Cutlass Liz (Salma 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.  

Ambitious project

The Pirates! Band of Misfits, Aardman’s most ambitious stop-motion film to date, will be created with the same hand-crafted technique that the company brought to the Academy Award-winning film Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Chicken Run.  

The film is directed by Peter Lord, a founding partner of Aardman, director of Chicken Run (with Nick Park), and a two-time Academy Award nominee for his short films at the company

Commenting on the announcement, Lord said, “I’m so grateful to the entire cast for their talent and energy. 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.