Rush joins cast of "kick-arse" road movie

Rex Features

Geoffrey Rush has joined the cast of coming-of-age musical Bran Nue Dae, producers told The Hollywood Reporter.

The Oscar-winning actor will play a missionary priest in the indigenous film, to be directed by Rachel Perkins. Rush will co-star with aboriginal actor Ernie Dingo and Australian musicians Missy Higgins and Dan Sultan.

He described the comedy, which is set in the northwest Australian town of Broome, as a "kick-arse road movie" which centres on family, forgiveness and aboriginal reconciliation.

The 57-year-old recently appeared in Elizabeth: The Golden Age and Pirates of The Caribbean: At World's End.

He is apparently also in negotiations to play Gonzalo in Julie Taymor's big screen adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest.