Susan Sarandon And More Talented Actresses Join This Spaced-Out Movie
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If you want to make a science fiction movie that’s guaranteed to bring in major bucks at the box office, you’d be wise to get into an animated feature. That’s what’s happening over at ToonBox Entertainment, Redrover Co., and Gulfstream Pictures — the team behind last year’s squirrely hit The Nut Job — where they’re hard at work on the space-faring kids flick Spark, a film that now boasts the voice talent of Oscar-nominated actresses Susan Sarandon and Hilary Swank, as well as Jessica Biel. I’m kinda hoping now that this entire movie is just filled with only actresses.
Spark centers on a teenage monkey named Spark, voiced by Henry Danger‘s Jace Norman, who enters into a dangerous mission along with his friend Vix, the hardnosed fox voiced by Biel, and a tech-friendly warthog named Chunk, who hasn’t been cast yet. The trio are attempting to take down the warlord General Zhong, who has taken Planet Bana as his own.
As his travels will take him all over the universe, Spark ends up meeting a “noble, self-sacrificing” Queen, who is voiced by Swank, as well as a memory-challenged robot nanny called Bananny, which is where Sarandon comes into it. Apparently Spark also has a “true identity” of some kind, although I’m not sure what that means. Probably that he’s related to the enemy.
The hopefully gorgeous animated flick is being directed by Aaron Woodley, who has a handful of acclaimed indie dramas under his belt, along with episodes of the animated series Glenn Martin DDS. Woodley co-wrote the script along with Inspector Gadget TV reboot writers Doug Hadders and Adam Rotstein.
Sarandon, whose major source of sci-fi work was in the Wachowskis’ Cloud Atlas, can be seen this year in the Marilyn Monroe miniseries Marilyn, Paul Duddridge’s drama Mothers Day with Sharon Stone, and the transsexual comedy drama Three Generations with Naomi Watts. She will also be heard in the freaky-looking animated comedy Hell & Back.
This will be the first voice role for Swank, who starred in last year’s western drama The Homesman from Tommy Lee Jones, and George C. Wolfe’s drama You’re Not You. She’ll be seen later this year in the Starz drama The One Percent with Ed Helms. Biel, who is currently filming Andy Goddard’s thriller The Blunderer with Patrick Wilson, had a light 2014, but she can be seen years younger in the long-shelved romantic comedy Accidental Love, formerly known as Nailed.
Spark is currently in production, with a 2016 release date planned. Are you guys ready to see a monkey, a fox and a warthog go to war in space?
