First trailer for 'Mowgli' gives a look at Andy Serkis' dark take on a classic story

Image from Coming Soon

By Darian Scalamoni

            It was years ago that Jon Favreau’s live-action The Jungle Book took the box-office by storm and led Disney building towards tons of live-action re-telling’s or remakes of their animated classics. A darker take on the normal “bear necessities” has been in the works for years though at Warner Bros. and now we finally have a trailer.

            This version is directed by Andy Serkis, who just directed Breathe last year and focuses on “the journey of Mowgli of being an outsider…” and that “through the mentorship of all the different creatures that surround him, he eventually finds a way to go from this orphaned child to becoming a leader of the jungle.” This seems to steer closer to Rudyard Kipling’s classic novel rather than the musical type that Disney has produced in the past.

            This project has been in development for years with Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Ron Howard originally attached. However, it was back in 2015 when Serkis was attached with Alfonso Cuaron serving as an advisor. Serkis is the proclaimed master of motion capture having played tons of characters thanks to that technology including Gollum of The Lord of the Rings, Caesar in the Planet of the Apes franchise and Supreme Leader Snoke in the newest Star Wars films.

            Check out the trailer below for Mowgli! The film has an all-star cast and stars Rohan Chand, Andy Serkis, Freida Pinto, Matthew Rhys, Christian Bale, Benedict Cumberbatch, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hollander, Peter Mullan, Naomie Harris, Eddie Marsan and Jack Reynor. Mowgli hits theaters on October 19^th.