Bryan Cranston, Mads Mikkelsen, and Rebel Wilson will lend their voices to "Kung Fu Panda 3," DreamWorks Animation said Tuesday.
They join returning cast members such as Jack Black and Angelina Jolie in the latest installment in the furry warrior franchise.
The film is slated to open on December 23, 2015, and will be the first Panda film released in the holiday season instead of the heart of summer. The first two films in the franchise grossed $1.3 billion worldwide.
Cranston is best known for playing a villainous meth dealer on AMC's "Breaking Bad." Mikkelsen is a Danish actor who is most familiar on these shores for menacing James Bond in "Casino Royale," and also has the title role in NBC's new "Hannibal." Wilson had a breakout role as an a cappella singer in "Pitch Perfect."
The film's financing model demonstrates the increasingly globalized nature of the film business. "Kung Fu Panda 3" marks the first planned co-production with Oriental DreamWorks, the company's China-based venture with China Media Capital, Shanghai Media Group and Shanghai Alliance Investment. The goal is for Oriental DreamWorks to eventually produce two to three films a year out of China.
Jennifer Yuh Nelson, who also oversaw "Kung Fu Panda 2," will direct, and the film will be produced by Melissa Cobb, executive produced by Guillermo del Toro and co-produced by Jeffrey Hermann along with Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger. Aibel and Berger also wrote the film.
