McKellen cast in <i>Magic Roundabout</I> (13432)

Sir Ian McKellen (Lord of the Rings) has signed to voice the spring-loaded character Zebedee in a computer-animated version of the British kids television classic The Magic Roundabout. McKellen joins a voice cast including Jim Broadbent (Iris), who will play Brian the Snail, and Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous, Ella Enchanted), who is set as Ermintrude the pink cow. Pop stars Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue will play Dougal the shaggy dog and Florence the girl, respectively. The movie, backed by London-based and French-owned Pathe Pictures, is scheduled to open in the United Kingdom next February. The original TV series was created in 1965 by French author Serge Danot and then adapted into English by Eric Thompson, the late father of actress Emma Thompson.