In 2004, Baldwin received an Academy Award for his role in “The Cooler.” In 2008, he lent his voice to the DreamWorks Animation feature “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.”
According to Billy Joyce’s books, North, better known as Santa Claus, is the de facto leader of the Guardians – but it is the Man in the Moon, “the wise watcher of the world,” Ramsey says, who chose him many centuries ago. “When the Man in the Moon decided a group of special people was needed to protect Earth’s children from Pitch, the first guy he found was Nicholas St. North,” says Joyce, who envisioned North as a sword-wielding Cossack in his early days, “the wildest young warrior and thief in all of Russia,” until his mission in life changed to become a protector of children.
For the film, everyone agreed that North, with his booming voice, blustering, uncompromising attitude and “naughty” and “nice” tattoos emblazed on his forearms, was a boisterous, larger-than-life character that needed to be played by a larger-than life actor. Who better than Oscar nominee Alec Baldwin?
