NASA and other independent financers, have for some time now been working on a relatively big budget, computer animated, 3-D IMAX movie called Quantum Quest. The movie is primarily and educational film, but one with a narrative which follows a lively photon who lives in the sun sucked into a galactic battle between the Core and the Void.

I find it highly unlikely that an animated educational film produced by NASA will actually be all that entertaining, but they’ve certainly assembled a badass voice cast for it. Variety reports that they’ve landed William Shatner, Chris Pine, Hayden Christensen, James Earl Jones to lead the cast of the film. That’s right, old Kirk, new Kirk, old Vader, and new Vader all in the same film. For anyone who is any kind of proper geek, this is now a film you absolutely must see.

Better still those four are just the tip of the iceberg. Also in the cast are Samuel L. Jackson, Amanda Peet, Jason Alexander, Sandra Oh, and Mark Hamill. That’s 2 Jedi, a hot chick, the funniest guy from Seinfeld, and… Sandra Oh… all in the same film. Or at least their voices are all in it. Still I’ll take it.

Pine will play the movie’s photon here Dave. Shatner is the good guy Core and Hamill (who’s a brilliant voice actor) plays the bad guy Void. Nearly exciting as the voice cast is where the movie takes place. Along the way it’s supposed to explore the moons and planets of our solar system… but they’re not just doing it with hazy, dreamed-up animation. Instead they’ll interweave animated sequences with actual imagery from space captured during seven ongoing space missions whose goal was in part, specifically to capture images for use in the film.

Because of all the real data involved, they’ve been working on this thing since 1996. Quantum Quest is expected to at last hit IMAX theaters in late-2009. See images and hear samples of some of the cast’s already recorded voice work over on the film’s official site.