Following the upcoming Despicable Me sequel, the Minions will have their chance to shine in all their yellow glory. Of course, where there are Minions, there must be a villainous master to serve. And that's where Sandra Bullock comes in. The Heat star and Oscar winner has been tapped to voice the lead villain voice in Minions, which is expected to arrive in theaters late next year.
Deadline reports that Bullock will voice the role of Scarlet Overkill, "a stylish bad-ass super-villain who is bent on world domination." The story for the 3D CG animated comedy sounds like something of a prequel, as it's set in the 60s, after having established that minions have been around since the dawn of time, working hard to help their evil villain masters. Things pick up around the 1960s, before the Minions were working for Gru (Steve Carell's Despicable Me character)...
After wiping out all their masters, the Minions fall into a collective depression and three of them set out to seek a new evil master. They wind up at a villain convention, where they compete for the right to be henchmen for Scarlet Overkill, whose Audrey Hepburn-like high style appearance belies her world domination ambition and her aspirations to become the world’s first female super-villain.
Sandra Bullock isn't exactly known for villainous roles, but she is known for her sense of humor, which should come in handy with this part. Her character sounds ambitious and eager to make a name for herself as a villain. Though, it'll be interesting to see where that takes her. After all, Despicable Me was all about a villain, but Gru turned out to prove far less evil than he might have liked to believe himself to be. Perhaps the same will be the case for the glamorous sounding Scarlet Overkill. What is more than likely is that she'll have a few determined Minions scuttling around, attempting to help her achieve her goals.
Given that this is the Minions' spinoff, we should probably expect them to take center stage for this film. Still, considering they don't exactly speak English (or any recognizable language that I know of), it's good to know there's at least one recognizable voice among the cast. And Bullock has a little voice-work experience under her belt, having voiced the part of Miriam in Prince of Egypt.
Minions is scheduled to release December 19, 2014. And we'll see Despicable Me 2 in theaters July 3, 2013.
