'Simpsons' movie now in progress

Work has finally begun on the long-anticipated Simpsons movie.

All of the principal cast members have now signed up for the project, while creator Matt Groening has given his approval to the script.

"Now we're going to get the best of both worlds, evidently," a show spokeswoman told Contact Music. "They finally worked out a movie team, a team of the writers, because we could never hire outside writers - they had to be Simpsons writers, and most of them were working on the show.

"They finally put this team together that has time on the side, and they've been working on the script. So the movie won't be at the end of the series - they'll be working simultaneously."

The film is expected to be released some time in 2007.