Andy Serkis To Direct Jungle Book Recreation

Remember Caesar from the latest Apes film this year?  Well, I couldn’t be happier for him now more than ever, as if that were even possible.  The talents of Andy Serkis, the actor who portrays him on screen, have resonated in Hollywood and he’s now directing!  He’s scheduled to direct the new recreation of “The Jungle Book” for Warner Bros.  Jungle Book originally being a series of short stories created by Rudyard Kipling in the 1800’s. 

Actors Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Naomie Harris, Tom Hollander, Eddie Marsan, and Peter Mullan have just signed on to add to the cast led by Benedict Cumberbatch as the voice of Shere Khan.  Bad Words’ Rohan Chand will portray Mowgli. 

Christian Bale will voice Bagheera the panther who looked out for Mowgli.  Blanchet will voice Kaa, a vicious python and another ally to Mowgli; and Harris the female wolf Nisha from the pack of wolves who help raise Mowgli. 

Even director Andy Serkis is no stranger to this line of work and will be acting as well to play the lovable Baloo.

This film will be a mixture of live action, CG animation, and motion capture technology.

I’m eager to see how this pans out as Jon Favreau (director of Iron Man) is working on another Jungle Book with Disney with Idris Elba as the voice of Khan and a star studded cast (Lupita Nyong’o, Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray, Christopher Walken), which puts me in extreme excitement.  But the fact that Serkis is directing makes me just about as excited.  Serkis’ Jungle Book is supposed to be a darker version than Disney’s so that pretty much brings things back in balance for me.

Favreau’s Jungle Book is due in October 2015 with Serkis’ version a year later.

I can’t wait!

Source:  The Hollywood Reporter, The Guardian 


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