Warner Bros.' Jungle Book makes evolutionary leap to Andy Serkis

By Sean O'Neal | March 21, 2014 | 5:02pm

Aux Features Film

In this ruthlessly dog-eat-dog, hot-swing-number-soundtracked world, survival is often determined by speed, agility, and how many other movie projects you have going on. And so, Warner Bros.’ live-action The Jungle Book has had to adapt once again to keep up with Disney, evolving in directors from Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu to Ron Howard to Andy Serkis, after Howard opted to concentrate on his many other projects instead, and, presumably, after he saw this picture we made. So now Serkis, a man known for getting inside animals (in a family-friendly way!) will do that again by taking over the Warners project, which is still racing to avoid being eaten by the Jon Favreau-helmed, Idris Elba-starring Jungle Book at Disney.

For Serkis, The Hollywood Reporter says Jungle Book would mark his official directorial debut, suggesting that his previously announced plans to adapt another allegorical animal tale, George Orwell’s Animal Farm , might be put on hold so Serkis can concentrate on this. It’s unknown as yet whether Serkis’ involvement will also include strapping on the old motion-capture suit to help Warners achieve its goal of presenting “true-to-life” animal behavior, such as their being super cool to orphans. But if so, it would definitely be an evolutionary leap from Ron Howard, who—let’s face it—for all his considerable contributions to the world of cinema, makes a pretty shitty monkey.