Liam Neeson Goes ‘Nuts’ in New Squirrel Animated Film

Veteran actor Liam Neeson has joined the all-star cast of the upcoming animated movie “The Nut Job“. The CGI film is being produced by Canada’s ToonBox Entertainment and Korean partner Redrover Co., Ltd. The cast of the film includes stars like Katherine Heigl, Will Arnet, Brendan Fraser, Stephen Lang, Sarah Gadon and comedian Jeff Dunham.

We don’t know a lot about the movie right now, but the The Nut Job is an “action-packed comedy” grounded in the late 1950s in fictional Oakton. The story follows the travails of Surly, a mischievous squirrel, and his rat friend Buddy, who plan a nut store heist of outrageous proportions and unwittingly find themselves embroiled in a much more complicated and hilarious adventure that brings them face-to-face with quite a few unsavory characters like Raccoon King, Fingers, Lucky and Knuckles.

The story is written by veteran Disney Animation screenwriter Lorne Cameron (who also wrote previous anthropomorphic animated films like Brother Bear and Over The Hedge).

The movie is being directed by Peter Lepeniotis. He’s previously worked for Pixar Animation Studios as well as Industrial Light and Magic, and as an animator on films like Toy Story 2 and Fantasia 2000.

The Nut Job hits theaters later in 2013.

Your thoughts on this announcement? Is there still a viable market for goofy talking animal movies? Sound off in the comments!