Jon Favreau may be swooping up Hollywood talent left and right for his adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, but let’s not forget that there are two adaptations of the classic tale currently in development. Favreau’s film is spearheaded by Disney, while Warner Bros. has its own version in the works, from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes star Andy Serkis.
Serkis will make his directorial debut with Jungle Book: Origins, set for release a year after Favreau’s film, on October 21, 2016. Development on Serkis’ project has been a bit slow, but it grew by leaps and bounds today with its first casting announcement: Benedict Cumberbatch has signed on to voice the villainous tiger Shere Khan.
Funnily enough, this is not the first Khan Cumberbatch has played. He recently portrayed Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness, where he showed his villainous chops. His voice work (and motion-capture performance) as Smaug in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is what likely caught the attention of Serkis, and shows that Cumberbatch is a fantastic choice to play the man-eating tiger Shere Khan.
Luther and Pacific Rim actor Idris Elba is playing Shere Khan in Favreau’s film.
Originally published August 19, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
