Madonna Does

NY (AP) - Madonna has signed on alongside Ben Stiller, Chris Rock and Jason Alexander to lend her voice to the forthcoming animated flick, Madagascar.

The film focuses on four captive animals - a lion, a zebra, a hippo and a giraffe - who are ripped from their cozy habitats in New York's Central Park Zoo by animal rights' activists and sent back to their native lands. While en route, however, their ship capsizes and the creatures wind up marooned on the island of Madagascar, where they encounter the savagery of real nature for the first time. It's not yet known which of the four beasts Madonna will portray.
"Madagascar," tentatively slated for a 2002 release, will be directed by the team of Eric Darnell and Conrad Vernon, who directed Antz and co-wrote Shrek, respectively.

Madonna's involvement in this picture means that she, presently midway through a sold-out U.S. arena tour, is now signed on for at least two boat-oriented pictures: Madagascar and Swept Away, the latter an English remake of 1975's steamy Italian-language flick Swept Away... By an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August. Swept Away, the story of a beautiful snob stranded on a deserted island with a brutish communist sailor (they eventually fall in love, have passionate sex, etc.), will be directed by Madonna's husband Guy Richie (Snatch). No official production dates have yet been set for either film.