While Harrison Ford gears up for the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, his dearly departed onscreen dad is close to wrapping a very different kind of project.
By FilmStew Staff, FilmStew.com
It started out as a 20-minute 3D animated short. But last year, with Sean Connery voicing the lead character of an eccentric veterinarian licensed to heal using the magical qualities of Catterness waters, the decision was made to turn Sir Billi the Vet into a full-length feature film.
Connery, who partnered with the Glasgow Animation husband and wife team of director Sascha Hartmann and producer and Tessa Hartmann, tells Glasgow's Sunday Mail that they have completed "77 out of 87 minutes." He also offers an interesting clue as to the next high-profile member of the voiceover crew.
"We are keeping a few surprises up our sleeve," Connery shares. "I can say we are working hard with one particular British song diva. More will be announced shortly." Could it Scottish lass Sheena Easton? Or perhaps someone more like Annie Lennox or Kate Bush? Time will tell.
Currently joining Connery in the enterprise are fellow Scots Alan Cumming (as the voice of Gordon the Goat), Ford Kiernan, Ruby Wax and Patrick Doyle (a composer who earned a pair of Oscar nominations in the mid-1990's for Sense and Sensibility and Hamlet). Though this film is a labor of love, Connery has not lost his cheeky charm. On the Billi Productions website, he recalls in a streaming video interview the time he was offered a major voiceover role in one of Disney's big animated features.
"It was a pittance [that they offered me]," Connery recalls. "I say why? 'Because it's for the kids.' But the profits are the same…"
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