Imagi Studios (creator of TMNT), today announced that multiple BAFTA Awards winner Matt Lucas (for the popular BBC comedy series “Little Britain”) has joined the cast of its CG-animated motion picture “Astro Boy.” Lucas joins Nicolas Cage, Donald Sutherland, Kristen Bell, Nathan Lane, Bill Nighy and Eugene Levy with Freddie Highmore in the title role.
David Bowers (Flushed Away) is directing Astro Boy from a screenplay written by Timothy Harris (Trading Places, Kindergarten Cop), with Maryann Garger producing.
The iconic character Astro Boy has found global popularity since his creation in the early 1950s by Japan's Osamu Tezuka, known as the “god of manga” and “father of anime,” and has been the hero of three acclaimed animated television series aired around the world.
The movie is slated for domestic release on October 23, 2009.
