MUMBAI: Actor Hugh Grant will voice the lead role alongside an all-star cast in The Pirates! Band of Misfits, the new stop-motion, 3D, animated film produced by Aardman Animations for Sony Pictures Animation.

The film, which will be distributed by Columbia Pictures, will be released on 30 March, 2012 in North America.

This will be Grant’s first animated role, where he will be voicing for the luxuriantly bearded Pirate Captain – a boundlessly enthusiastic, if somewhat less-than-successful, terror of the High Seas.

The movie will also have voice-overs by Salma Hayek, Jeremy Piven, Martin Freeman, Brendan Gleeson, Russell Tovey, Imelda Staunton, David Tennant and Ashley Jensen.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits is directed by Peter Lord and co-directed by Jeff Newitt. The screenplay is by Gideon Defoe, based upon his books. Production designer is Norman Garwood, whereas producers are Peter Lord, David Sproxton, and Julie Lockhart. Executive producer is Carla Shelley.

Lord said, "I’m so grateful to the entire cast for their talent and energy. 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."