FROM Caped Crusader to Barbie's boyfriend - even Michael Keaton dropped his phone and burst out laughing when he was offered his latest job.

The Batman star - who is best-known for his darker roles such as his part in Beetlejuice - voices Ken, the hunky perma-tanned piece of plastic in the third Toy Story film.

"When they said Ken," laughed the 58-year old, "the phone fell out of my hand and I started to laugh. I just thought it was really funny."

Toy Story 3 has its first screening in the UK at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on June 19 before it goes on general release next month.

Michael was one of Hollywood's leading lights in the 80s and 90s with films such as Pacific Heights and Jackie Brown. But in the last decade, only White Noise has emulated the high watermark of his past roles.

But Keaton is going back to his comedy roots in Toy Story 3 and in September's The Other Guys, which stars Mark Wahlberg, Samuel L. Jackson and Will Ferrell. Michael admitted he has taken a break from movies since the turn of the millennium.

He said: "I just thought I was repeating myself and I really wasn't having a lot of fun where I used to have fun, so I was always kind of selective to a fault.

"I was also raising a son - Sean, now 26 with ex-wife Caroline McWilliams. He lived with me half the time, so I chose not to go and make certain movies.

"I had to be very picky about how to do them and I didn't think I was very good for a while."

The world of Toy Story is perhaps perfect for Michael, the youngest of seven children, who was born Michael Douglas in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania to a family who traced their lineage to Scotland.

After changing his name to Keaton - after reading an article on actress Diane Keaton - so he wouldn't be confused with Kirk Douglas' son Michael, the actor is used to playing characters who have been made into toys.

There was Beetlejuice and then he starred in the first two Tim Burton Batman films. In 1989's Batman opposite Jack Nicholson's Joker, and 1992's Batman Returns, with Danny DeVito and Michelle Pfeiffer. So how exactly did he go from Batman to Ken?

"You know, that's probably not the leap you think it is," he said laughing. "These guys were great because while it sounds kind of silly because you are playing a doll, you still have to do the work. You still have to ask yourself some basic questions, at least I do, to get started.

"You've got to start from something and then you have the advantage of saying, 'Well, he already exists'. Then you just listen to what they tell you to do and have a lot of laughs."

Michael was late to the allure of voicing characters, but worked with Pixar on 2006's Cars as Chick Hicks, voicing the cheating green car at the beginning race of the film.

He said: "I had seen the success of some of the early Pixar movies without ever actually seeing them. Then I watched The Incredibles, and I thought it was extraordinary."

Listening to Michael remembering what he was like as a kid, he is perhaps more like Sid from the first Toy Story movie. Remember the boy who butchered toys?

With cheery relish Michael revealed: "I had a collection of soldiers and cowboys and Indians, all kinds of figures which I loved.

"But if they looked as if they'd been through a real war, I would melt them and paint them with blood on their faces, so it's a little different approach than Ken."

Being brought up in a large Catholic family as the youngest meant Michael wore a lot of hand-me-down clothes and played with his older siblings' cast-off toys.

So did he play with toys such as Ken? "No, where I come from, that would have meant being beaten severely," he said.

He may be approaching 60 but the box office star still calls himself a "toy person".

He said: "That's because I have a motorcycle and I have little RV types on my ranch. Guys never really get over their toys."

So does Michael remember the last toy he played with?

"I do," he said, with a big grin spreading across his face, "but I had a bottle of tequila before that so I don't think that counts."

For long-term fans of Keaton, it's nice to see him joking about. His funny bone has worked well for him ever since his big break as the fast-talking Bill in 1982's Night Shift. He was a stay-at-home dad in 1983's Mr Mom and and became a huge star in 1988's Beetlejuice.

"Dating Courteney Cox for six years made him one half of Hollywood's hottest couple when she began filming Friends in 1994.

In Toy Story 3 Ken is a bachelor who lives in a daycare centre where Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Mr. Potato Head and the gang go to live after their owner, Andy, heads off to college.

Ken already seems like the star of the film after promotional video clips featuring the doll offering dating advice were released on the internet.

The film sees the return of Tom Hanks as Woody, Tim Allen as Buzz, who, with the rest of the gang, face an uncertain future.

When the toys land in a room full of tots who can't wait to get their sticky fingers on them, it's pandemonium.

As well as Ken, another newcomer is Mr Pricklepants, voiced by former James Bond Timothy Dalton, and the not-so-cuddly bear named Lotso (Ned Beatty).

And what of Batman, currently played by Christian Bale? Michael has recently said he'd play Beetlejuice again. But would he pull on the Batman costume one more time?

"I still put the suit on occasionally," he said.

"But I don't play with the dolls any more."

And then he added: "You are actually taking that seriously. You believe I'm going home and putting on the suit."

Of course we are.

Toy Story 3 in 3D is being screened at the EIFF on June 19. The film is in cinemas on Monday, July 19.