Jay Leno, Steve Buscemi and John Cleese enlisted for "Igor: Unholy Frijoles"

Jay Leno, Steve Buscemi and John Cleese have joined the "Igor: Unholy Frijoles" team, a new computer-animated short film of Exodus Film Group.

The actors may soon join Christian Slater in Igor, Exodus' upcoming feature-length computer-animated film, as they are in talks for voice roles as well, according to movieweb.com.

The seven-minute "Igor: Unholy Frijoles" will be entered in the film festival circuit with distribution plans to follow, according to a statement posted on the official website of the production company.

The computer-animated short film Igor: Unholy Frijoles is just the prequel to Igor, an animated comedy which is due to release in 2007. The story revolves around a mad scientist's hunchbacked lab assistant who has big dreams of becoming a mad scientist in his own right and winning the first place award at the annual Evil Science Fair.

Exodus' award-winning partner ElectroAge is creating the cutting edge animation for IGOR. Both the IGOR short and feature were written by Chris McKenna. The short is being directed by Emmy winner Fil Barlow.

The films are exec produced by animation veteran Max Howard, who collaborated on such animated hits as Disney's LION KING, ALADDIN, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, THE LITTLE MERMAID, POCAHONTAS and WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?, as well as Warner Bros.' SPACE JAM and THE IRON GIANT.