Maya Rudolph, Terry Crews join Ricky Gervais in ‘The Willoughbys’

Maya Rudolph, Terry Crews, Martin Short, Jane Krakowski and Sean Cullen have joined the cast of Bron Animation’s The Willoughbys.

Kris Pearn writes and directs and Cory Evans co-directs the story of the four Willoughby children, abandoned by their selfish parents, who embark on an adventure through the modern world. They encounter a cat, an orphan, a nanny and a confection mogul on their quest to reunite with the family they were born into.

Rudolph will voice Nanny, who looks after the Willoughby children. Crews is voicing the confection mogul Commander Melanoff, and Short and Krakowski give voice to Father and Mother Willoughby, parents so in love with each other they forget they even have children. Cullen voices the twin boys Barnaby A and B.

Gervais was previously announced as the narrator of the film, which is currently in pre-production at Bron’s studio in Burnaby, British Columbia. 

Bron’s Brenda Gilbert, Aaron L. Gilbert and Luke Carroll are producing. Gervais serves as an executive producer, alongside Jason Cloth of Creative Wealth Media. 

Pearn said: “We’re so excited to have this amazing cast, some of the funniest actors in the world adding their distinctive voices to The Willoughbys. It’s a very special movie with a timely message and I know Ricky, Maya, Terry, Martin, Jane and Sean are going to have so much fun breathing life into these characters.”

Pearn’s previous credits include head of story on Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, co-director of Cloudy 2, and story supervisor on Arthur Christmas.

Bron Animation is currently in production on its original film Henchmen, which features the voices of James Marsden, Thomas Middleditch, Rosario Dawson, Alfred Molina, Nathan Fillion, Jane Krakowski, Rob Riggle, Craig Robinson, Will Sasso, and Bobcat Goldthwait.