Ed Helms Kevin Hart - H 2014
AP ImagesIt’s up, up and underway for Captain Underpants: The DreamWorks Animation feature has found its cast.
Ed Helms and Kevin Hart will provide vocal talents for the big-screen adaptation of Dav Pilkey‘s popular children’s book, penned by The Muppets screenwriter Nicholas Stoller.
EXCLUSIVE: Rob Letterman to Direct ‘Captain Underpants’ for DWA
They’ll be joined by Comedy Central stars Nick Kroll and Jordan Peele, as well as by Thomas Middleditch, who recently played a goldfish-rearing stock trader in The Wolf of Wall Street.
“These actors are some of the funniest around today,” says director Rob Letterman (Monsters vs. Aliens, Gulliver’s Travels) in a statement. “Letting them loose with these characters is sure to be a hysterical ride.”
Centering on the adventures of two mischievous fourth graders voiced by Hart and Middleditch, things quickly spiral out of control when their favorite superhero, Captain Underpants, magically springs to life from the pages of a comic book. Helms voices the boys’ power-mad principal, Mr. Krupp, Peele plays their geeky nemesis, Melvin, and Kroll takes on wretched supervillain Professor Poopypants.
Scholastic first launched Underpants in September 1997, and there now are more than 50 million Pilkey books in print in the U.S. alone. Eight Underpants books have been published in 19 countries, and several have debuted at No. 1 on various best-seller lists, including The New York Times and USA Today.
Letterman and Stoller previously worked together on 2010’s Gulliver’s Travels, the Jack Black comedy-fantasy that Letterman directed (it was his live-action debut) and Stoller co-wrote.
