Rihanna lends voice to animation

Rihanna is to lend her voice to the animated film Happy Smekday!

The chart-topping songstress, who made her big-screen debut in sci-fi action movie Battleship earlier this year, is in talks to star in the film adaptation of Adam Rex's children's book The True Meaning Of Smekday, reported Heat Vision blog.

The Big Bang Theory's Jim Parsons will join the Talk That Talk singer in the DreamWorks animation, with further casting yet to be announced.

Their characters have not yet been revealed, but the story - which is written by 11-year-old human Tip, who gets to travel with an alien - is about a group of aliens invading Earth on Christmas Eve after they have been forced by a villainous race to leave their own planet.

Antz co-director Tim Johnson will direct the animated feature, which has been written by Get Smart's Tom J Astle and Matt Ember.

Happy Smekday! is scheduled for a late 2014 release.

Rihanna has previously said that she wants to do more acting.

"I want to take my time, start with baby steps. Start with small roles that I feel I could pull off in a professional way," she has said.