Armored Bear voices

While doing the promotional rounds for the upcoming fantasy action adventure THE SEEKER: THE DARK IS RISING in which he seemingly plays a mentor of sorts to the film’s unknowingly magically gifted protagonist, Ian McShane let slip his and Ian McKellen’s involvement in one of my most anticipated fantasy films of the year (hell, of the goddamn decade!) – THE GOLDEN COMPASS, an adaptation of the first of Phillip Pullman’s celebrated HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy. Says the former “Deadwood” bad ass, courtesy of the good folks at Cinematical:

…And The Golden Compass I did, as well. I play the bad bear, the voice of the bad bear, and Ian McKellen plays the voice of the good bear.

The good bear is, of course, Iorek Byrnison who’s seen in the poster to the right and who helps the story’s protagonist Lyra (Dakota Blue Ricahrds) on her quest to free her friend Roger from his imprisonment in the North. The bad bear, Iofur Raknison, is the false king of the Armored Bears. With these two voicing these characters, it can only mean even more good things. The film’s scheduled for release December 7th.