After The Polar Express, Beowulf and A Christmas Carol, filmmaker Robert Zemeckis is ready to begin filming his next motion capture/3D project, another remake/adaptation, this time of the 1968 Beatles animated film Yellow Submarine [this news coming from THR (via CHUD)].

The original 2D-animated film concerned Pepperland resident Old Fred who travels in a, yes, yellow submarine to find The Beatles to help him defeat the music-hating Blue Meanies, thereby restoring peace to Pepperland. For a while it was speculated Zemeckis would have surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr fill in the motion capture and voice roles, as aging isn’t a problem for the performance, but just as with the original the film, it will feature four separate actors to voice the four members of the group and another four to portray them digitally.

Providing voice work will be Cary Elwes (who was featured in A Christmas Carol) as George Harrison, Dean Lennox Kelly as John Lennon, Peter Serafinowicz as Paul McCartney, and Adam Campbell as Ringo Starr (who in real life sings the title song*). Providing motion capture work will be Beatles imitators The Fab Four, while the soundtrack will be composed of 16 original Beatles songs (using covers when you have access to the entire library seems silly after all). One would expect them to utilize the original film’s soundtrack, although half of the songs aren’t even Beatles songs, so expect there to be more in terms of music spanning their entire career. Filming is expected to begin soon, with a release in time for the 2012 Olympics in London, and also coincidentally around the anniversary of The Beatles recording their first ever single, “Love Me Do.”

Oddly enough, while most are declaring this to be a terrible idea, I’m actually sort of excited. Yes, this is everything people lambaste Zemeckis for doing, but as a Beatles fan I’m looking forward to this project. That being said, I hope the stylized look of the original is utilized so we don’t have to deal with the “dead eye” problem so prevalent in many motion capture projects. That much being said, we’ll simply have to wait and see, but for the time being I have hopes for this film and its promise.

What do you think of this project? Is a Yellow Submarine remake a good idea?

*Note: You can listen to the song right here.