Thu Feb 28, 2008 — by Wade Gum

'Astro Boy' Movie Casting Begins

One lucky kid has a golden ticket to voice Astro Boy

When the people of the future are in trouble, they turn to one thing to save them from the forces of evil -a tiny robot that doesn't own a pair of pants and can deploy guns from his rear.

Astro Boy is being adapted into a big budget CG movie by Warner Bros. and The Weinstein Company and the titular character has already been cast. The voice of Astro Boy will be provided by Freddie Highmore.

Highmore is familiar to most film fans as Charlie Bucket from Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He's no stranger to voice work either, as he recently provided the voice of Pantalaimon in The Golden Compass.

Astro Boy debuted as a manga in 1952 and became a television series in 1963. The character was created by Osamu Tezuka, considered the "god of manga" by some, and the television series was one of the first cartoons to use the anime asthetic.

The film version is slated for release in 2009 and is being scripted by Timothy Harris, the man responsible for Space Jam - the greatest movie to ever involve Michael Jordan and Bill Murray teaming up with cartoons to fight monsters from space. Astro Boy is in good hands.

(via CHUD)

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