Celebrity Voices to Coach Kevin James in ‘Zookeeper’

Published by Jeff Leins on: June 23rd, 2009

After the success of Paul Blart: Mall Cop, MGM and Happy Madison Productions pushed forward with another Kevin James starrer, The Zookeeper.  Take the goofy almost comedy from the mall, then transplant it to the zoo.  Of course, he’ll be wearing a uniform because that’s what Kevin James does (cop, delivery man, zookeeper).  There’s your winning formula, only this time he’ll be taking sage advice from talking animals.  It will be live-action (not animated!) though because they wouldn’t want to be unoriginal…

According to Variety, here’s the line-up of celebrities who need more approval from their kids:  Adam Sandler will voice a Capuchin monkey (it’s Happy Madison, so naturally he’s involved), Jon Favreau a bear, Cher a giraffe, Sylvester Stallone a lion, and Judd Apatow an elephant.  (There is a rough depiction of the lovable team to the right.)

The zoo creatures will help James spark up a romance with Rosario Dawson.  As an animal, my advice would be to lay off the physical comedy and wacky facial expressions for more than two minutes and pray for a predictable plot arc.

While we’re vaguely on the subject of Cher, she’s also joined the musical Burlesque, the film debut of Christina Aguilera.  It’s the first time Cher has sang in a movie she stars in and her first movie in a decade.  I know, exciting stuff.  Expect lots of vibrato.