Carrey and Carell sign up for 'Horton Hears a Who'

Jim Carrey and Bruce Almighty co-star Steve Carell have been signed to the voice cast of 20th Century Fox’s animated adaptation of the 1954 Dr. Seuss favorite, Horton Hears a Who. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Carrey will star as loveable elephant Horton while Carell takes on the role of the Mayor of Who-Ville in the CG-animated pic, which is now in preproduction and slated for release in March of 2008.

Horton Hears a Who is being directed by Jimmy Hayward and Steve Martino from a script by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio (The Santa Clause 2). Hayward’s credits include Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc. and A Bug’s Life. He met Martino (Oscar-winning vfx director for Total Recall) when they worked together on Robots. The film’s animation will be handled by New York studio Blue Sky, under the supervision of Fox Animation president Chris Melendradi and Blue Sky’s Chris Wedge (Ice Age, Robots). Theodor Geisel’s (Dr. Seuss) widow Audrey Geisel will be exec producing the film, as well as its proposed sequel, Horton Hatches an Egg.

This is the second Dr. Seuss adaptation for Carrey, who wore prosthetic make-up to take on the title role in Universal’s 2000 live-action take on How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Though he played an animator in the obscure 1984 television series The Duck Factory, Carrey has done little animation voice work to date. He was originally scheduled to lend his voice to the character of R.J. the raccoon in DreamWorks’ Over the Hedge, a role that eventually went to Bruce Willis. Carell, meanwhile, turned in a show-stealing performance as the voice of Hammy the squirrel in that film. In addition to starring in the hit film Little Miss Sunshine and keeping up his Emmy-winning job on NBC’s The Office, Carell is scheduled to reprise his Bruce Almighty role for a sequel titled Evan Almighty.

Source: Animation Magazine