Monday, 21 September 2009

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Brad Pitt to play superhero for his kids' sake

Star to appear in new animated movie

Brad Pitt has six children with partner Angelina Jolie

In his current movie, Quentin Tarantino's R-rated WWII movie Inglourious Basterds, Brad Pitt plays a southern lieutenant whose squadron, among other bloody deeds, scalps Nazis.

'Yeah,' Pitt, 45, confirmed to interviewer Ann Curry on Tuesday's Today show, 'people lose some hair.'

When Curry counters that Pitt - the father of six - ought to make a kids movie, the leading man steps forward with the announcement that he is doing just that, by providing the voice for an animated feature in which he'll play a 'superhero who wants out.'

Pitt says that movie will costar the voices of Tina Fey and Robert Downey Jr., and trade reports identify the project as Oobermind, from DreamWorks Animation and Madagascar co-director Tim McGrath. An update since the Pitt-Curry sit-down also indicates that Will Ferrell has replaced Robert Downey Jr.

The movie, now in post-production for a November 2010 release, reportedly opens with Pitt, as the super heroic Metro Man, being accidentally killed by the super villain Oobermind(Ferrell), who has a change of heart about being bad and so creates a new hero, Titan(Jonah Hill) - much to the confusion of a local newscaster (Fey).

It's not autobiographical, Pitt told Curry, who inquired if he might be doing the movie in order to appear heroic to his and Angelina Jolie's children: Maddox, 8; Pax, 5; Zahara, 4; Shiloh, 3; and twins Knox and Vivienne, 1.

'It's just something they'll enjoy,' he responded, 'and that's cool.'

Steven M Silverman