For the life of me I can't understand why we don't see more of Frances McDormand. The woman is a phenomenal actress, and an Oscar winning one at that, yet she hasn't been in a film since 2008's Coen brother's film Burn After Reading (in which she was a scream). Lucky for us, 2011 brings Ms. McDormand back into our lives with two roles, one in the upcoming Transformers sequel and another in the dark drama This Must Be The Place with Sean Penn. She's apparently trying to stick around this time, however, as she has just landed another role, although for this one we will only be hearing her voice.
THR reports that McDormand will not only be lending her voice to the next film in Dreamworks' Madagascar series, but that she will be playing the role of the villain in the film. Unlike Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer and Jada Pinkett Smith, who are returning for the sequel and voice animal characters, McDormand will be playing a human - "a calculating and goal-oriented animal control officer who leads her team to capture the animals." In the film, directed by Eric Darnell, the group tries to find its way back home by joining a traveling circus.
To me, the most surprising part of this story is that Frances McDormand has never done voice-over work for an animated film before. While it isn't her normal voice, I can't even hear the word "Minnesota" without thinking about the actress' accent in Fargo. Maybe this will open up a whole new career path that will ensure that we get more and more McDormand in the years to come. We can only hope so.
