Firth withdrew from director Paul King's film after it was decided by studio executives that his voice did not suit the pint-sized bear.
Delighted to announce that Ben Whishaw will be the voice of #Paddington, coming to the big screen this Christmas. pic.twitter.com/afP5GFDmpg
— STUDIOCANAL UK (@StudioCanalUK) July 18, 2014
Whishaw has since begun recording sessions for Paddington, with the movie still on track to make its UK debut on November 28 and its US debut on December 25.
King told the Daily Mail: "I slowly found myself hearing [Whishaw's] voice when I was thinking about Paddington.
"He breathes and he speaks and he sounds like Paddington, rather than the most beautiful chocolate-voiced man [Firth] on the planet."
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Skyfall and Brideshead Revisited star Whishaw said that he initially had reservations about the project, partly because he was not a reader of the Paddington books as a child.
"I resisted a little bit, because I had a bad experience doing this kind of work in the past and I thought I was no good at it. But I was persuaded to go.
"[Now] I just arrive and wear this funny helmet that has a camera attached to it. It's highly mysterious to me. I just see what they've done on screen, which is really beautiful and very exciting."
Paddington's supporting cast includes Peter Capaldi as Mr Curry, Nicole Kidman as Millicent and Hugh Bonneville as Mr Brown.
The character of Paddington Bear made his first literary appearance in 1958.
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