British favourite Colin Firth will provide the voice of beloved children’s character Paddington Bear in a new film adaptation, it has been revealed.
The actor, famous for his roles in Bridget Jones’s Diary and Pride & Prejudice as well as his Oscar-winning turn in The King’s Speech, was confirmed today to have signed up for the part.
Nicole Kidman is also on board for the CGI project, and will play an evil taxidermist. Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville and Sally Hawkins will portray Mr and Mrs Brown.
Paddington Bear will be in cinemas in 2014 (Official poster)
Julie Walters is on the bill as housekeeper Mrs Bird, while Jim Broadbent will provide the voice for antique shop owner Mr Gruber.
Firth confirmed that, while his character will be animated, everyone else will be ‘real’.
“Every other character in the film will be real, live human beings,” he told the Daily Mail.
“But the idea is that Paddington will have something of me in his DNA because I’m going to do some sessions wearing one of those helmets with cameras to capture my face muscles, and all that data will somehow be incorporated into Paddington.”
Kidman said:
“I just had to do the bear film. My agent called and said, ‘We’ve got this offer from London for you to be in a film about a Paddington Bear.’ And I said: ‘You mean the Paddington Bear?!’
“I was read the stories when I was little and I grew up with Paddington. I know all about his adventures and what mischief he got up to.”
