Despicable role for Steve Coogan

Steve Coogan has joined the cast of the Despicable Me sequel.

The Alan Partridge star will voice a character in the eagerly anticipated follow-up to the 2010 animated comedy film, according to The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision blog.

It has also been revealed that Al Pacino will be playing a baddie in the film, a role Javier Bardem was previously linked to.

Steve Carell is set to reprise his role as a villainous mastermind in the sequel, and most of the voice actors from the original film, such as Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews and Will Arnett, are due to return.

Kristen Wiig, who voiced Miss Hattie in the first movie, returns in a new, unspecified, role.

Plot details for Despicable Me 2, set for a 2013 release, are being kept under wraps.