Shawn Mendes will reportedly make his big screen debut as a singing reptile.
The 23-year-old Canadian star will voice the title character in the upcoming adaptation of the classic children’s book Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, according to Deadline.
The live-action roles are played by Javier Bardem, Constance Wu, Winslow Fegley and Scoot McNairy. Filming began last September and the movie, directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon, is set to open in cinemas in October.
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the songwriters behind La La Land and Dear Evan Hansen, reportedly wrote original songs for the movie with Mark Margeson.
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, written by Bernard Waber and published in 1965, is about a crocodile who lives with the Primm family in New York City.
Mendes previously voiced an animated character in the 2013 direct-to-video Underdogs, an English-language dub of the Argentine comedy Metegol.
In 2018, Mendes revealed that he was in the running to play the lead role in Love, Simon. “I would’ve loved to. Unfortunately, timing didn’t work out. That would’ve been amazing,” he said.