Film: THE PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS - new film from Aardman Animation

 Coming next 3-30-2012

Sony and Aardman Animation have teamed for a new 3D stop-motion animated film, called The Pirates! Band of Misfits, based in part on Gideon Defoe‘s book The Pirates! In an Adventure With Scientists. (Which is also the film’s title in the UK, I believe.) That isn’t news, but the first still, above, and the announcement of the full cast definitely is.

Aardman co-founder and Chicken Run co-director Peter Lord is directing the film, which is animated in the now-classic Aardman clay figure style, and he’s got Hugh Grant making his clay debut as the chap you see above. There are a bunch of other great names on hand to provide voices as well, and you can get the full list after the break.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits, in addition to Hugh Grant, will feature: Martin Freeman, David Tennant, Imelda Staunton, Jeremy Piven, Salma Hayek, Brian Blessed, Brendan Gleeson, Russell Tovey, and Ashley Jensen.

 Aardman’s most ambitious stop-motion film to date, created with the same beautiful 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”.