Brian Blessed

Hugh Grant, Salma Hayek and More to Provide Voices for Aardman’s THE PIRATES! IN AN ADVENTURE WITH SCIENTISTS

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: May 5th, 2011 at 11:48 am

Aardman Animation has assembled an impressive voice cast for their upcoming stop-motion 3D animated film The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists.  Variety reports that Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, Salma Hayek, David Tennant, Imelda Staunton, Jeremy Piven, Brendan Gleeson, Brian Blessed, and Ashley Jensen will all lend their voices to the film.  The movie will be the first voice acting role for Grant and he’ll play the lead role of a “bearded Pirate Captain who travels far and wide in a quest to win the much coveted Pirate of the Year Award.”  I’m already smiling at the thought of someone with Grant’s signature foppish, befuddled delivery playing a pirate.   Chicken Run co-director Peter Lord will direct alongside Jeff Newitt.

While Pixar is usually dubbed the “Animation Studio with the Perfect Track Record” I’ve always been incredibly charmed by Aardman’s films.  They’ve only done three feature films to date (Chicken Run, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and Flushed Away) and I’ve enjoyed all of them.  Their latest film, Arthur Christmas, opens in 3D on November 23rd.

Brian Blessed Is THOR’s Odin?

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: June 2nd, 2009 at 7:52 pm

According to new website Bleeding Cool (note: if you start bleeding cool, get to a hospital immediately), Kenneth Branagh has tapped actor Brian Blessed to play Odin in “Thor”.  Branagh, like the previously-announced Thom Hiddleston, has not only worked with Branagh in the past, but in his productions of Shakespeare, specifically “Hamlet” and “As You Like It”.  As I’ve said before, I’m loving the casting of actors who know their Shakespeare for this film.

For those who don’t know their Norse mythology (and shame on your for sleeping through Vikings 101), Odin is Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) pop-pop.  He’s also pop-pop to Thor’s villainous half-brother Loki (Hiddleston).  I’m sure Thor and Loki will refer to Odin throughout the film as “pop-pop”.  And if you’re calling it “pop-pop”, you’re clearly not ready to have a war of the gods amongst mortals.

Click here to read the full story.  “Thor” hits theatres on May 20, 2011.

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