X-Men actors to voice game

Activision has signed key actors up to its new X-Men film tie-in, which is due out on May 19th on a whole host of formats including Xbox 360.

Previously the games have had to make do with the authoritative tones of Patrick Stewart as Professor Xavier - something of a videogame regular - and stand-ins like good old Mark Hamill, but this time it'll be the real deal with Hugh Jackman handling Wolverine, Shawn Ashmore as Iceman and Alan Cumming speaking for Nightcrawler. All the characters have been modelled on the actors' appearance anyway.

Nightcrawler actually won't be appearing in X-Men: The Last Stand - the third film, due out at the end of May - but the game's supposed to take place prior to the events of that film, so perhaps it'll explain what happens to him - a theory supported by the involvement of screenwriter Zak Penn.

Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, Penn said he was brought in "to sync up the film with the game" alongside co-writer Chris Claremont. "The game's based on the comic universe, which is different than the film world. I was charged with bringing the game characters into the reality of the movie," Penn told the Reporter.

X-Men: The Official Game is due out next month on PS2, Xbox, Cube, PC, X360, GBA and DS.