Voice casting around Wes Anderson’s stop-motion animated adaptation of “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” has never been quite clear. There’s only been seemingly only one initial announcement in the trades and then the rest of the cast has leaked out in interviews with actors like Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman. George Clooney and Cate Blanchett are also involved. But is the latter actress gone from the project?
Last August it was quietly announced that Meryl Streep had joined the cast. Now a post in a Dutch entertainment blog not published on April 1st, says Blanchett’s was replaced by Streep and this seems to be confirmed from the test screening reports that have been floating around. Apparently other actors have joined the voice cast like Owen Wilson, Michael Gambon (who was already rumored for sometime), Willem Dafoe, Adrien Brody, Jarvis Cocker (who’s also doing some music for the film), and Anderson himself, plus his brother Eric Anderson (who does most of the hand-drawn Criterion covers for his bro).
Evidently Schwartzman, Wilson and Murray play the three farmers in the script, but that wouldn’t jive because Murray has already said he is playing a badger, but then again, the report is being translated from Dutch.
However, much of this information is coming from a test-screening from an incomplete film so Anderson’s voice may not be in the final version (though he’s done plenty of little voice work in his own films before, so we can’t see why he wouldn’t stay). ‘Benjamin Button’ composer Alexandre Desplat is reportedly writing the music to “Fantastic Mr. Fox” as well, which is sure to make Mark Mothersbaugh enthusiasts shed a tear. [via Rushmore Academy]
Apparently there’s a a surprise voice at the end of “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” which a test-screening member wouldn’t reveal. At first some of our members speculated Brad Pitt because of the Japanese cellphone commercial they did together in December, but it could be any number of these alleged new voice cast members.