Robert Downey Jr. Goes to the Dogs

In-demand actor to voice Mr. Peabody in an animated film, based on the Rocky & Bullwinkle character

Will Robert Downey Jr. make history with his next role?

Sounds improbable, but the idea of Iron Man voicing the bespectacled, erudite dog Mr. Peabody in Peabody and Sherman, based on the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show short Peabody's Improbable History, is still a great one.

Downey, who recently gave the iconic Mr. Peanut a voice for the first time, has signed on to lend his distinguished pipes to the DreamWorks animated project, to be directed by Rob Minkoff in time for a 2014 release. No word yet on whether a kid or a grown man will be the voice of Sherman, Peabody's "adopted boy."

Either way, may the project fare better than The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, which barely cracked $35 million at the box office worldwide (though it was featured during the jaw-dropping Golden Globes tribute to Robert De Niro, who played Fearless Leader).

In addition to the monocled (we're sensing a theme here) Mr. Peanut, Downey has also been using his voice to talk up Nissans and take Ricky Gervais down a peg.