Ben Stiller is returning in the lead with Shawn Levy back as director and producer through his 21 Laps banner. The script is written by Thomas Lennon, Robert Ben Garant, David Guion and Michael Handelman.

Fox will release the family adventure on Dec. 19. The first film grossed $574 million worldwide and the second took in $417 million.

Rebel Wilson, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan and Ricky Gervais are also starring in the third installment.

Ben Kingsley has joined and will play the role of an Egyptain pharaoh revived by a magical tablet.

The Night at the Museum stars will come to life one more time.

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (due out Dec. 19) is the third and final bow of the successful comedic franchise centered around nocturnally animated museum exhibits and regular-guy night watchman Larry Daley (Ben Stiller).

This time the museum wonders travel to London's British Museum, and out to the streets.

"We have brought museums to life, but we have never really explored the idea of taking the magic into the world. This movie really goes beyond the museum walls," says director Shawn Levy. "We are out in London, on a double-decker bus, in Trafalgar Square. It's a juicy idea we haven't explored."

It starts at the original home, New York City's American Museum of Natural History, where the vibrant exhibits were discovered after closing time in 2006'sNight at the Museum (2009'sNight at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian took place in Washington, D.C.).

But the source of the life-giving magic — the Egyptian Golden Tablet of Pharaoh Ahkmenrah — begins to corrode, forcing international action.

Larry and museum exhibits including Pharaoh Ahkmenrah (Rami Malek), Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams), Attila the Hun (Patrick Gallagher), Sacajawea (Mizuo Peck), Roman centurion Octavius (Steve Coogan) and Jedediah (Owen Wilson) wind up at the British Museum's famed Egyptian wing to solve the deadly mystery.

"We go to the British Museum in the second half of the movie because that is where the answers lie," says Levy. "It's not because it felt like time to get on an airplane."

The London setting allows for a new cast of characters. A powerful pharaoh, Ahkmenrah's father and the tablet's creator, is played by Ben Kingsley. Rebel Wilson portrays the shocked security guard who comes across surprising after-hours activity.

Dan Stevens continues to break away from his Downton Abbey persona by playing a comical Sir Lancelot underneath 50 pounds of armor, a role that Levy calls "a comedic revelation."

Stevens enjoyed finding the "silly, larger-than-life" side to the famed Knight of the Round Table, even if it meant literally riding a horse through Trafalgar Square during a night shoot. "That was a bit bizarre."

He also describes the surreal scene of having late-night conversations next to the Rosetta Stone with Robin Williams during night shoot breaks in the museum. Stiller, too, was wowed by having "access to this incredible place that you would just never have a chance to walk around by yourself."

The film also features the final appearance of Mickey Rooney who shot scenes with fellow night security guards Dick Van Dyke and Bill Cobbs.

"I didn't know it was to be his last film, but it was a truly memorable shoot," says Levy of Rooney, who died April 6 at age 93. "He came to work."

This installment will be Levy and Stiller's last museum trek, after the first two films made nearly $1 billion worldwide at the box office.

"These remain the most successful movies that Ben and I have ever done," says Levy. "Ultimately, in some ways, this is about saying goodbye to a franchise which has been career defining for both of us."