Colin Firth

Colin Firth

Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman will star in a 'Paddington Bear' movie.

The Oscar-winning 'King's Speech' actor will voice the titular marmalade-loving animal from Peru, while Kidman has signed on to play the CGI movie's villain.

Firth told the Daily Mail newspaper: "Paddington will be computer generated, and I will speak his lines with, I suspect, a slight Peruvian flavour. Every other character in the film will be real, live, human beings.

"But the idea is that Paddington will have something of me in his DNA because I'm going to do some sessions wearing one of those helmets with cameras to capture my face muscles, and all that data will somehow be incorporated into Paddington."

The movie will be directed by Paul King and produced by David Heyman, the man behind the 'Harry Potter' films. 'Nanny McPhee' screenwriter recently redrafted the script.

Kidman - who reunites with 'The Railway Man' co-star Firth for the movie - gushed about her role: "I just had to do the bear film. My agent called and said, 'We've got this offer from London for you to be in a film about a Paddington Bear.' And I said. 'You mean the Paddington Bear?!'

"I read the stories when I was little and I grew up with Paddington. I know all about his adventures and what mischief he got up to."

The movie will also feature 'Downton Abbey' actor Hugh Bonneville and 'Blue Jasmine' actress Sally Hawkins as Mr. and Mrs. Brown, who take Paddington upon his move to London from Peru, while Julie Walters will play their housekeeper Mrs. Bird.

'Paddington Bear' began life as a 1958 children's book by Michael Bond, and the children's favourite has since appeared across print and TV.