Eddie Redmayne steps back in time for Aardman role

Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne is playing a courageous caveman in Aardman's new animated movie Early Man.

Lending his voice to Dug, the unlikely hero of the stop-motion adventure, Redmayne will be starring alongside Tom Hiddleston, Timothy Spall, Richard Ayoade and Game Of Thrones' Maisie Williams.

In a teaser trailer released on Thursday, fans got a first look at Dug's character, seen on a hunt with his sidekick Hognob, before being forced to chastise members of his tribe.

"Today we get to meet Dug's tribe, a loveable bunch of misfits voiced by some exceptional British talent," said director Nick Park.

"They're essentially a group of inept cavemen and women including Treebor, played by Richard Ayoade, a gentle giant scared of his own shadow; Magma, Treebor's no-nonsense mother voiced by Selena Griffiths, and Mark Williams as Barry, whose best friend is a rock," he added.

"Chief Bobnar, voiced by Timothy Spall, leads the pack as their long-suffering leader, and father figure to his tribe of idiotic brutes."

Park is the mind behind award-winning cartoons Wallace And Gromit, Shaun The Sheep, Morph and Chicken Run.

Redmayne is currently shooting the sequel to the Harry Potter spin off Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them.

Little is known about the film, apart from it focusing on British wizard Newt Scamander, facing Albus Dumbledore's arch-nemesis Gellert Grindelwald, played by Johnny Depp.

This isn't the first time the Theory Of Everything star will voice an animated character.

In 2015, he starred in the children's movie Thomas & Friends: Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure.

Filming for Early Man is currently taking place in Bristol and the project continues the partnership of Aardman and StudioCanal following 2015 film Shaun the Sheep.

It will be released in UK cinemas on 26 January.