Garr-Ha-Ha!      (15.07.11)
  

   Avast behind! - Aardman Animations are setting sail with a
   motley band of pirates next year. "The Pirates! - In an Adventure
   with Scientists" is adapted - nay, plundered - from the book
   by Gideon Defoe. Defoe's ongoing series has a bit of a Discworld
   vibe going on, with its madcap antics and salty humour. It's
   perfect stop-motion material, and has great franchise potential.

   Peter Lord and Jeff Newitt are co-directing Aardman's adaptation,
   with Hugh Grant providing the voice of The Pirate Captain, and
   Salma Hayek, Jeremy Piven, Martin Freeman, David Tennant and
   Imelda Staunton on the credits too. It's due in cinemas next March
   in both 3D and 2D versions, and two advance trailers have just
   been released. They're aimed at different sides of the pond, and
   it's well worth checking out both, because they feature different
   material, and a wholly different approach to suit the two markets,
   the most immediate being a title change. The domestic trailer is
   The Hound's favourite, it's cut around a ridiculously silly sea
   shanty that's guranteed to make you smile. But you can make
   make up your own mind:

                                      UK Trailer
       The Pirates! - In an Adventure with Scientists

                                      US Trailer
                      The Pirates! - Band of Misfits

   The film itself has taken time to get this far - it first went into
   development in the Spring of 2009 - but it appears to have been
   well worth the wait. There's some wonderful character design here,
   great ships and great beards. The Hound loves The Pirate Captain's
   swirling red fronds. Yep, we'll be keeping our cutlasses crossed
   for this one...

                                          More: The Pirates  Aardman

 
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