Martin Freeman joins 'Santa'

FreemanLONDON -- Brit thesps Martin Freeman, Noel Clarke and Tim Curry will all lend their voices to U.K. toonpic "Saving Santa," that is set to start production on Friday. Pic marks the very first toon to leave Gateway Films, the shingle behind local photos "Anuvahood," "Shank" and "Sket." Joan Collins, Pam Ferris ("Harry Potter and also the Prisoner of Azkaban"), Craig Fairbass ("CodInch) and Chris Barrie ("Tomb Raider") will even voice figures within the 5 million ($7.8 million) pic. Story sees a clumsy elf who does not participate in another elves, but after finding the key of Santa's time device, he sets on an outing in order to save Santa's Kingdom after its location was discovered by an evil character. Leon Joosen, whose animation credits include "The Small Mermaid" and "Aliens within the Loft," is placed to helm the pic, while Ough Roxburgh ("The Wild Bunch") composed the script. Gateway's Terry Stone and Nick Simunek will produce alongside Tony Nottage, while Max Howard is professional producer. "We have always aspired to come with an animation studio under Gateway," Stone told Daily Variety. "And this will be our initial step in to the animation world. We are not likely to stop making movies, but moving forward an animation studio will probably be a leg in our company and that we intend on doing one or two animations each year.Inch Gateway is within discussions having a studio for U.K. privileges. Gateway can also be being produced on $3.a million "Get Lucky," toplining Luke Treadaway, T.J. Ramini, Emily Atack and James Cosmo, which Universal is disbursing in Blighty and Oz. Contact Diana Lodderhose at diana.lodderhose@variety.com