Bill Murray Joins Wes Anderson’s Stop-Motion Animated Movie About Dogs, Obviously

Back in October we learned that Wes Anderson is returning to the world of stop-motion animation for his next film, which is about the life of dogs. As predicted by just about everyone when the initial voice cast was announced, frequent Anderson star Bill Murray is re-teaming with the director to lend his vocal talents to the project — obviously.

Murray was honored at the Marrakech International Film Festival over the weekend where he attended a press conference after receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award. It’s there that he revealed (via The Playlist) that he’s collaborating with Anderson once again for the new animated film, which he describes as “a Japanese story,” and yes, he’ll be voicing a dog:

I’m playing a dog. He’s doing another, like a stop motion animated kind of comedy sort of like ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox,’ and it’s a Japanese story and I’m playing a dog. I’m very excited.

The actor joins a cast that includes fellow Anderson regulars Jeff Goldblum, Edward Norton and Bob Balaban, along with Anderson newbie Bryan Cranston. Goldblum, Norton and Balaban previously appeared in The Grand Budapest Hotel, while Goldblum starred in The Life Aquatic and Balaban and Norton appeared in Moonrise Kingdom.

Murray, of course, has appeared in every Anderson film save for his debut feature, Bottle Rocket. The actor was spotted having dinner with Anderson, Cranston and Norton back in October just before the first round of casting was announced. It’s safe to assume that at least a couple more of Anderson’s favorites — along with a few newcomers — will join the cast relatively soon.

It’s unclear how far along Anderson is with production, though Fantastic Mr. Fox took quite a while to put together, so it may be some time before we see the director’s latest efforts.