Grant stars in animated pirate picture

CULVER CITY, Calif., May 6 (UPI) -- British actor Hugh Grant has lent his voice to the lead character in "The Pirates! Band of Misfits," a stop-motion 3-D film produced by Aardman Animations.

The movie, which will be distributed by Columbia Pictures, is to be released March 30 in North America.

This marks the first animated role for Grant, star of "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Bridget Jones's Diary" and "Sense and Sensibility."

In his latest project, Grant plays "the luxuriantly bearded Pirate Captain -- a boundlessly enthusiastic, if somewhat less-than-successful, terror of the High Seas," the film's producers said in a news release Thursday.

The voice cast also includes Martin Freeman, Brendan Gleeson, Russell Tovey, Ashley Jensen, Jeremy Piven, David Tennant, Imelda Staunton and Salma Hayek.

The movie was directed by Peter Lord, a founding partner of Aardman and director of "Chicken Run." Aardman also produced "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit."

The screenplay for "Pirates" was penned by Gideon Defoe, based on his books.

"I'm so grateful to the entire cast for their talent and energy," Lord said in a statement. "The characters that they've created fill the screen with life and fun. As the Pirate Captain, Hugh Grant has given a stand-out performance -- he combines an effortless on-screen warmth with brilliant comic timing. And as the leader of our motley pirate crew, he shows a real barnstorming, swashbuckling side of his character as well. Only Hugh could anchor this story of love, loyalty, greed, and nautical high-jinks."