Depp will lend his voice to a household pet who goes on an adventure in Rango, an idea dreamed up by Verbinski.

The project is a collaboration with George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic, and Verbinski is promising it will take animation to the next level.

He tells Daily Variety, "(Cutting edge techniques) will allow us to capture and translate every aspect of Johnny's performance, using it to drive the computer-generated character in a way that has yet to be seen in an animated feature."

The movie is slated for a 2011 release.