Hugh Grant will voice a pirate in Aardman Animation’s ‘The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists’

Hugh Grant is set to voice a pirate in the new Aardman animation in THE PIRATES! IN AN ADVENTURE WITH SCIENTISTS, which will be released by Sony Pictures Animation. The film, which will be distributed by Columbia Pictures, will be released March 30, 2012 in the UK.

Hugh Grant, starring in his first animated role, is the luxuriantly 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.  Along the way they do battle with the pirate-hating Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton) and team up with a young Charles Darwin (David Tennant), but never lose sight of what a pirate loves best: adventure!

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. The film is co-directed by Jeff Newitt. The screenplay is by Gideon Defoe, based upon his books.

We have the very first image of Grant’s character from the film, a stop-motion effort very much like Aardman’s Wallace and Gromit series, and their superb movie CHICKEN RUN.

Take a look below.