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Simpsons' secret is almost out

High security surrounded new film

Secrecy was so tight around filming of the forthcoming Simpsons movie that the actors were not told about their scenes in advance – and scripts were immediately shredded after each recording session.

Harry Shearer – who provides the voice of Montgomery Mr Burns, Ned Flanders and Reverend Lovejoy among others – has revealed the extraordinary lengths producers took to protect the plot.

And he has told how the script has been polished right up to the last minute.

The big-screen version of the animated hit has been more than three years in the making, and will finally be released worldwide on July 27 – but scenes were still being reshot less than a month ago.

Speaking to The Times Shearer said: ‘If the security around the Los Alamos nuclear lab had been as good as the security around this movie I’d sleep a lot better at night.’

The cast were never sent scripts, he said, but had to read each scene when they turned up to the recording session.

And he revealed the film’s 11 writers, including the show’s creator Matt Groening, have been polishing almost every line over the past year.

‘I’ve done at least a dozen versions of one major scene,’ he said. ‘And as late as June 12 I was doing a recording session where they had two entirely different sets of lines for me to record.’

Shearer is currently in London to perform with the rest of Spinal Tap at the Live Earth gig in Wembley on Saturday.

Here’s the latest trailer for the Simpsons movie: