Hugh Grant and Jeremy Piven are among the actors on board Aardman and Sony’s upcoming stop-motion 3D film, The Pirates! Band of Misfits.

Hugh Grant, starring in his first animated role, is the bearded Pirate Captain – a boundlessly enthusiastic yet unsuccessful terror of the High Seas.  The Captain’s dream is to beat his bitter rivals Black Bellamy (Jeremy Piven) and Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek) in order to receive the coveted Pirate Of The Year Award.  Martin Freeman, David Tennant, Imelda Staunton, Brian Blessed, Brendan Gleeson, Russell Tovey and Ashley Jensen are also lending their voices to the film.

Pirates! Band of Misfits will emulate the same stop-motion styles found in Aardman’s Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Chicken Run.

The film is directed by Peter Lord, a founding partner of the UK-based Academy Award-winning animation studio. It will be distributed by Columbia Pictures and will hit North American theaters on  March 30, 2012.