Sometimes Pixar casts really famous actors in their starring roles. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen voice Woody and Buzz in the Toy Story trilogy. Owen Wilson lends his pipes to the Cars franchise. The main monsters in Monsters Inc. sound like Billy Crystal and John Goodman. More often than not, though, Pixar’s confident enough to go with unexpected talents because they fit the part, whether it be Albert Brooks as Marlin in Finding Nemo or the bleeps and blips of iconic sound designer Ben Burtt for WALL-E. So the news that the studio’s working with Serenity and Firefly player Alan Tudyk isn’t much of a shock. Now we just want to know in what capacity he and Pixar are collaborating.
Tudyk, who was speaking with Empire on behalf of his horror-comedy Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, opened up about his voiceover work on The Green Arrow, the Halo video game, and an upcoming Pixar feature. Which one, however, remains a mystery.
“I don’t know how much I can say on that one except it’s a really cool role that I can’t wait for people to see, but I’m sure it’s at least two years out, maybe a year and a half at best,” Tudyk told the site. “We’ve been working on it for a while though. It’s great, they really take their time.”
So, what does Pixar have on their 2013 schedule? Tudyk could be talking about the Monsters prequel, Monsters University, which has been in production for some time now and has circled June 21, 2013 as a release date. (Though there was no mention of Tudyk at the recent D23 presentation.) It’s also possible Tudyk is recording vocal parts for the untitled dinosaur or brain features Pixar also teased at D23.
Either way, it sounds like Tudyk’s joining the likes of Dave Foley, Ellen DeGeneres, Patton Oswalt, Joan Cusack and the great John Ratzenberger as a funny character actor lucky enough to have their voice front and center in a Pixar masterpiece.
