Ian McKellen Set To Play An Animal Cracker

Thespian, Gandalf, leading mutant — Ian McKellen is many things, and to that impressive resume he will not be adding Animal Cracker. Yes, McKellen has joined the Animal Crackers movie, which is a thing that is happening. Lo, that we could have been in the casting room for those negotiations.

Which Animal Cracker will the venerable McKellen be playing? According to Pajiba he'll Horatio, "a big old wizened bear (which, in animal cracker form do sometimes just look like big blobs." Other voices who will contribute: Those of Sylvester Stallone, Danny DeVito, and Raven-Symoné.

The best thing about the Animal Crackers movie, though, is all the phrasing that makes it sound like it's a movie that's happening on purpose, as opposed to the last straggling idea that came out of a very exhausting weekday. Via co-director Scott Christian Sava, as quoted by The Wrap:

When I was writing Animal Crackers I had specific voices in my head. Certain characters I wrote with actors in mind. Horatio was always Sir Ian McKellen. Brock was totally Patrick Warburton. Bullet-Man could be no one else but Stallone! To find out that each and every one of these actors have agreed to come on board this film and bring these characters to life… I’m flipping out.

You can expect it to hit theaters in the summer of 2016, hopefully not as computer animated but instead as stop-motion.