Development on the Astro Boy animated movie, by the same house that did last year’s TMNT, hasn’t gone entirely smoothly. First Colin Brady was replaced as director by David Bowers (Flushed Away), then Kindergarden Cop mapmaker Timothy Harris came on to re-script from Michael Lachance’s original.

Rewriting animation is hardly a big deal, and even the director change doesn’t auger terrible things. But now, Nicolas Cage has joined the cast.

(In my head, there was a really ominous sound cue there, but you probably didn’t get the same effect.)

In addition to Cage, vocal stalwarts Donald Sutherland, Bill Nighy, Eugene Levy and Nathan Lane will be squawking into some microphones alongside the previously announced Freddie Highmore as Astro Boy. [Variety]  If all those people were going to be on screen together physically, I’d really be worried. As is, this could still be a neat little curiosity.