Robert Downey Jr has revealed the star-studded cast of The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle, which includes Emma Thompson, Ralph Fiennes and Tom Holland.
The Iron Man star, who plays the titular doctor who can talk to animals, took to Twitter to unveil the movie’s voice talents and their creature characters. While Thompson will narrate Polynesia the parrot, Fiennes will play Barry the tiger and Spider-man actor Holland will take on the role of Jip the Dog.
Selena Gomez will also star (as Betsy, a giraffe), alongside Octavia Spencer (Dab-Dab the duck), Rami Malek (gorilla Chee-Chee), Craig Robinson (a mouse called Fleming), The Big Sick’s Kumail Nanjiani (an ostrich named Plimpton), Fantastic Beasts’ Carmen Ejogo (lioness Regine) and Harry Potter’s Frances De La Tour (Ginko-Who-Soars).
And that’s not all. We also know Jim Broadbent, Antonio Banderas, and Michael Sheen will portray live-action characters in the adaptation of the 1920s series of children’s books by Hugh Lofting.
Of course, this won’t be the first time the film is brought to the big screen, with Rex Harrison playing the titular Doctor in the 1967 classic before Eddie Murphy memorably played him in 1998’s Dr Dolittle and sequel Dr Dolittle 2 (fortunately he didn’t appear in the subsequent three straight-to-video sequels).
The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle is slated for a release April 12, 2019 – just weeks before Downey is expected to reprise his role as Tony Stark for the untitled Marvel's Avengers 4.
