Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis’ 3-D remake of the Beatles’ famous animated Yellow Submarine has found its actors to voice the band, reports rollingstone.com.

The Princess Bride star Cary Elwes leads the cast as the voice behind George Harrison, with Dean Lennox Kelly voicing John Lennon, Peter Serafinowicz portraying Paul McCartney and Adam Campbell playing Ringo Starr. All four actors are reportedly in negotiations to appear in the Disney film.

For the performance footage needed in Zemeckis’ take on Yellow Submarine, the director has recruited “The Ultimate Beatles Band,” the Fab Four. However, producers for Yellow Submarine have secured the rights to the Beatles’ music, so the songs featured in the film will be the voices of the real Fab Four, not the tribute band. By having actors play the Beatles in the film, Zemeckis is actually keeping in tradition with the original version, which also hired voice actors in place of the actual foursome. The Beatles themselves only appeared in the film’s live-action epilogue.

Zemeckis was interested in having the two surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, contribute to the Yellow Submarine remake. But with actors being cast in their roles, it is currently unclear whether Zemeckis, who is writing the screenplay, still has plans for the real pair.

Aside from his performance in the classic film Princess Bride, Elwes, who will play George Harrison, is also known for starring in Saw and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Lennox Kelly, playing John Lennon, also stepped into the role of Robin Hood in a BBC series based on the famous character. Serafinowicz, playing Paul McCartney, is known by comedy fans as the roommate from Shaun of the Dead and the guy who stole Simon Pegg’s girlfriend in Spaced. Campbell, rounding up the cast and playing Ringo Starr, has appeared in Epic Movie and Date Movie.

Zemeckis has reportedly said that he hopes the release of Yellow Submarine will coincide with the London Olympics in 2012. A stage musical version of the new film is also speculated to be brewing.

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For a minute there, the entire history of pop music was hanging in the balance of some very unsteady hands. Michael Jackson’s esate, now in the control of his family, is famously known to include the entire Beatles discography but TMZ assures us the Fab Four’s musical history will not be included in a massive auction scheduled for April.

Jackson’s personal effects, many from his fabled Neverland ranch, will be auctioned to boost the assets in order to pay off the debt claimed by a number of creditors, according to the Guardian UK. But the Beatles catalogue, and the rest of Jackson’s publishing catalogue, will stay in the trust of his kids who can expect to profit more from it in the long-term than any immediate return if it were sold now.

In financial reports released in August, Jackson’s bottom line net worth was calculated to be $1,360,839,979, according to TMZ who viewed the documents. Of that, though, $1,150,000,000 is the Sony-ATV Publishing Trust holding the Beatles catalogue. The Jackson trust purchased ATV in 1985, after McCartney turned down the opportunity, and merged it ten years later in a deal with Sony. Now the third-largest music publishing company in the world, it owns the rights to music by Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Eminem, Willie Nelson and Taylor Swift, to name a few.

The Los Angeles auction is the first salee of Jackson’s property actually sanctioned by Jackson himself, after he tried to halt an auction in 2007 of he and his family’s properties acquired by a New Jersey businessman.

In life, the sale would signify Jackson’s departure from the grandeur of his celebrity existence – perhaps in the wake of his aquittal in 2005 of child molestation charges, which was followed by his abandonment of Neverland Ranch.

Now after Jackson’s death, the auction could mean one of two things: either a very poignant glimpse to the extraordinary extent to which Jackson tried to substitute real life with inanimate materialism. Or, it could turn out to be nothing more than a public bone collection of the only tangible remains of the King of Pop.

Neverland Ranch was literally emptied last summer, when Jackson commissioned Darren Julien, a renowned celebrity autioneer, to scrutinise the land. More than 2,000 items were cleared from the premises, including the amusement park that occupied only part of the 38 acres inside the ranch. The iconic gates of Neverland are now leaned against the wall of a warehouse somewhere in Los Angeles.

Julien is forecasting the April auction to be a regular frenzy of a sale as both media and fanatics are expected to flock to the Beverly Hilton event. Jackson’s signature diamond-studded glove that he wore when he married Debbie Rowe was auctioned to Warwick Stone on behalf of the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas for a whopping $49,000.

The April auction will feature more than 2,000 items, including exclusive artifacts from Jackson’s Neverland Ranch that have never been seen by the public eye. When Julien and his team were invited by Jackson in 2007 to scrutinise the Ranch, they were astonished at the bizarre accumulation inside.

“It seemed as if everything he owned was made of bronze and marble and gold,” said Michael Doyle, a member of Julien’s team according to the Guardian UK.

Along with custom-made crowns and an ornate throne that was part of Jackson’s bedroom decor, vintage arcade games and Jackson’s vast collection of 18th- and 19th century art will be available. Jackson’s stage costumes will inevitably go up for grabs, such as the fedora he wore in the video for “Billie Jean” and outfits dating as far back as his days in the Jackson 5. His personal souvenirs, such as military insignia he gathered during his world travels will go, along with a regal cape his children Paris and Prince Michael gave him as a Father’s day gift.

A large part of Jackson’s personal belongings will not be included in the auction, and only time and financial necessity will determine what other aspects of Jackson’s historic life will be sold to the clamouring hands of his admirers and debt collectors.

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