Jim Gaffigan and Carl Reiner have joined the voice cast of China-based Original Force Animation’s animated feature “Duck Duck Goose.”
Gaffigan will voice a goose who rescues two ducklings from an eccentric cat. Reiner will voice a wise turtle. The cast includes Stephen Fry, Jennifer Grey, Molly Shannon, Diedrich Bader and Rick Overton.
“Duck Duck Goose” is the first of three feature animated films currently in production at Original Force Animation. The company opened a Los Angeles-based production and development office in August, led by Penny Finkelman Cox and Sandra Rabins.
The film is directed by Christopher Jenkins (“Home”) from a screenplay he co-wrote with Rob Muir. Jenkins previously collaborated with Finkelman Cox and Rabins on “Surf’s Up” when the two execs launched Sony Pictures Animation.
Rabins and Finkelman Cox are producing the feature along with Viola Chen.
The story will center on Gaffigan’s character, Peng, being grounded by an injury and being saddled with two wide-eyed orphans who latch onto the goose like a parent. With a paralyzing winter on the horizon and the departure of both their flocks, Peng agrees to look after the ducklings out of fear his injury might be discovered by predators who would prey on a goose who cannot fly.
Gaffigan’s “The Jim Gaffigan Show” was recently picked up for a second season that will air this summer. He recently became one of only 10 comics in history to sell out Madison Square Garden and will soon be seen alongside Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts in the boxing movie “The Bleeder.”
Reiner co-starred in the “Ocean’s 11” movies, directed “The Jerk” and created “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”
Rabins and Finkelman Cox have overseen “Shrek,” “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” “Surf’s Up” and “The Prince of Egypt.”
Original Force has nearly 1,000 employees across its Los Angeles, Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai and Chengdu offices. China-based Tencent is a strategic investor in Original Force and the companies are developing a movie based on the game “QQ Speed.”
