Legacy Classics and Shout! Factory announce that Golden Globe-winning actor Martin Sheen (The West Wing) and Oscar winner J.K. Simmons (Whiplash, La La Land) will be leading the voice cast for the upcoming animated feature The Boxcar Children: Surprise Island, now in production.
Sheen will voice James Alden, while Simmons plays Dr. Moore. Joining them on the confirmed cast list will be Joey King (Independence Day: Resurgence) as Jesse Alden, Carter Sand (Frozen) as Benny Alden, Gil Birmingham (Twilight) as Lonan Browning, Griffin Gluck (Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life) as Henry Alden, Stephen Stanton (Star Wars Rebels) as Capt. Daniel, and Talitha Bateman (The 5th Wave) as Violet Alden. Additional casting will be announced later.
Dan Chuba and Mark Dippé are directing from a screenplay written by Chuba. The Boxcar Children: Surprise Island is an adaptation of the children’s book of the same name by author Gertrude Chandler Warner, and is produced by Legacy Classics at its animation and VFX studios, with co-producers Shout! Factory, Albert Whitman & Company and Blueberry Pictures.
The movie is part of a long-term, multifaceted family film co-production and distribution partnership of Shout! and Legacy. Surprise Island is the first of three Boxcar Children adaptations planned in conjunction with the 75th anniversary of the beloved books. The producers are working closely with publisher Albert Whitman & Company, and expect to launch the film in fall 2017.
Comprising 150 books, Gertrude Chandler Warner’s The Boxcar Children is one of the all-time best-selling children’s book series, with over 70 million books sold worldwide and over 1 million young student readers across North America each year.
 and Oscar winner J.K. Simmons (Whiplash, La La Land) will be leading the voice cast for the upcoming animated feature The Boxcar Children: Surprise Island, now in production.){kind=link}