In case you’re unaware, competing film adaptations of The Jungle Book are currently in production. One is at Warner Bros. and the other is at Disney. While the House of Mouse has Jon Favreau directing and Idris Elba voicing Shere Khan, the WB version seemed to have stalled for a bit. Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu was initially locked in to helm the project but he departed shortly after his involvement was announced. We then heard that Ron Howard was in the mix to replace him but now, a report is surfacing from Heat Vision that tells us the studio has gone with Andy Serkis.
Perhaps best known for his motion-capture work in the Lord of the Rings films and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Serkis will make his directorial debut on the film. With his incredible wealth of experience using mo-cap and his time spent as second unit director on The Hobbit trilogy, the actor is actually a great fit for the job, and I’m excited to see what he can do with the material.
Serkis has wanted to direct for some time now, originally planning on putting together an adaptation of Animal Farm. It’s unclear which project will go first, but given that Disney is already hard at work on their version of the classic story, I imagine that Warner Bros. will want Serkis to focus his efforts on this project before he goes off and makes anything else.
I think that most people will be quite surprised when they hear who the studio has gone with for the director’s chair but as I said above, given his previous experience, it actually makes a lot of sense to have someone like Andy Serkis at the helm. No word yet on if he’ll appear in front of the camera as well but I imagine that he will.
Tell us, what do you think of Andy Serkis directing The Jungle Book? Sound off below and let us know.
