Rowan Atkinson has signed up to star in his first movie in three years.

The comic will play a village vicar in Keeping Mum, his first major role since Johnny English in 2002.

His character will be so obsessed with writing the perfect sermon that he doesn't notice his wife's infidelity or the adolescent escapades of his kids, Hollywood trade journal Variety reports.

Kristin Scott-Thomas will play the wife who has a fling with Patrick Swayzee’s brash golf instructor.

Filming starts on the £9million movie in Cornwall on February 4.

Variety also says that Atkinson is also planning sequels to Bean and Johnny English, with Bean 2 looking likely to shoot later in 2005.

Atkinson’s only screen credit since Johnny English has been a brief  cameo in Love Actually.