Antonio Banderas, who has been nominated three times for a Golden Globe, and is best known for playing Zorro, will star in the new “SpongeBob SquarePants 2” movie sceduled to be filmed in Savannah and on Tybee Island in the coming weeks, according to the Savannah Daily News. Officials involved in the movie told Tybee Island representatives Friday morning that Banderas would play a bearded pirate in the movie, said Tybee’s city manager Diane Schleicher.

The SpongeBob sequel will begin filming on Tybee Sept. 30 and in downtown Savannah Oct. 9. BleedingCool.com reports that a recent casting call that was sent out specified for people in the Savannah, Georgia area to shave their faces if they want to be part of the pirate crew. This will make the bearded pirate, which will most likely be Banderas, look extra evil in the film.

Also, crews have been there and are doing lots of sprucing up, and the live action sequences will take several weeks to film, which leads one to think that there will be a lot of live action in the new film. Way more than the first one anyway. Also, interesting fact: On Tybee Island in the 50’s, apparently a nuclear bomb was accidentally dropped by the US military. It didn’t go off, but it was never found either…

This isn’t the first time Banderas has lent his talents to the entertainment of the younger set. The Spaniard has also played the voice of Puss in Boots in several of DreamWorks’ “Shrek” films and El Mariachi in “Desperado and “Once Upon a Time in Mexico.”

Spongebob Squarepants 2 will be the second featuring the Nickelodeon network favorite. The first SpongeBob movie, released in 2004, grossed more than $140 million. Paul Tibbit, a long time contributor to the TV series, is rumored to be directing. February 2015, over ten years after the first, is the tentative release date.

Image via wikipedia