Vogue Casts Dream Voices for Next Talking-Animal Movie After 'The Sheep Detectives' Success

Following the critical and popular success of 'The Sheep Detectives,' an animated film about mystery-solving sheep that opened last weekend to rave reviews in The New York Times and was deemed the hottest ticket in town by a Vogue editor, the magazine has proposed dream casting for a hypothetical sequel featuring real-life viral animals. 'The Sheep Detectives,' directed by Kyle Balda and written by Craig Mazin, features a star-studded cast including Hugh Jackman, Emma Thompson, Hong Chau, and voice actors Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bella Ramsey, Bryan Cranston, Patrick Stewart, Regina Hall, Chris O'Dowd, and Brett Goldstein. The film follows a flock of Agatha Christie-loving sheep solving the murder of their shepherd. Vogue's casting suggestions include J.K. Simmons, Jack Black, or Robert De Niro for Chonkers, a 2,000-pound Steller sea lion that went viral in April at Pier 39 in San Francisco; Bowen Yang for Moo Deng, a pygmy hippopotamus at a Thai zoo; and Elijah Wood or Andy Samberg for Punch the Monkey, a Japanese macaque that went viral in February. The article notes that talking-animal movies are increasingly attracting award-winning actors and top comedic talents, as seen with Pixar's 'Hoppers' (featuring Jon Hamm, Meryl Streep, Bobby Moynihan) covered in The New Yorker.