Mathieu Amalric & Isabelle Huppert To Voice Clooney & Streep's Parts For French Version Of 'Fantastic Mr. Fox'

Wes Anderson is obviously a bit of a Franchophile. He lives off and on in Paris, and set the short “Hotel Chevalier” in the classy Hotel Raphael in France (which is perhaps why ‘Darjeeling Limited’ which is set in India, yet inexplicably ends with an ill-suited French song by Joe Dassin about Les Champs-Élysées — we always found that odd).

And in “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” George Clooney’s Mr. Fox character even tries to communicate with a Black-power-loving wolf in French (asking, “do you think we’re goingto have a hard winter?”).

Wes knows his French. So it stands to figure for the French version of “Fantastic Mr. Fox” he would also make some strong voice casting choices. So, doing Clooney’s part of Mr. Fox in France is celebrated French actor Mathieu Amalric (“The Diving Bell & The Butterfly,” “Quantum of Solace”) and voicing Meryl Streep’s Mrs. Fox character is French icon, Isabelle Huppert (“The Piano Teacher,” “Heaven’s Gate” to name just a few important works).

No word on the other casting (i.e., who might do Bill Murray or Jason Schwartzman’s parts), but those are some pretty great alternate voice choices. “Fantastic Mr. Fox” opens wide this weekend in the U.S. (November 25) and hits France February 17. From this Allocine report, translated into English by Google, but still reading like dyslexic Chinese (sort of like this blog sometimes), it appears that French audiences will have the chance to experience the film with either the original voices intact or the French versions.