If you just had mental images of Keira Knightley strapping on a pair of gossamer wings to play Tinker Bell from the headline, hold your imaginary horses. Knightley is lending her voice to play the pint-sized fairy in SyFy’s live-action, four-hour miniseries Neverland.

Neverland is a prequel to J.M. Barrie’s classic tale of Peter Pan. Check out the summary:

“Peter, along with his pals of young pickpockets, have been rounded up by their mentor Jimmy Hook to snatch a magical orb that transports them to another world – Neverland. Filled with white jungles and imposing cities formed out of trees created by Dr. Fludd and inhabited by a colony of tree spirits led by Tinker Bell, this mysterious realm welcomes unknown friends and enemies snatched from time. These include power-mad Elizabeth Bonny and her band of 18th century pirates who search for the answer to eternal youth, a secret guarded by a Holy Man. As the fight to save this strange and beautiful world escalates, Peter and his crew consider that growing old somewhere in time could be less important than growing up — right here in their new home called Neverland.”

Knightley joins Rhys Ifans who plays Jimmy Hook, Anna Friel as Elizabeth Bonny, Bob Hoskins, Charles Dance as Dr. Fludd, Raoul Trujillo playing the Holy Man, and Charlie Rowe playing Peter on the cast. Neverland is written by Nick Willing who wrote and directed 2009’s Alice for SyFy, and directed Tin Man before that. Willing certainly has proven his chops with the fantastical!

Neverland is a production by Parallel Films, SyFy and Sky Movies HD with distribution by RHI Entertainment. Look for it to air in December of 2011.

[Source] Deadline