Although filming on Andy Serkis’ Jungle Book (formerly titled Jungle Book: Origins) took place back in 2015, Warner Bros. pushed the film back from its planned 2017 release date in a move to distance the movie from Disney and Jon Favreau’s own live-action adaptation, which proved to be a smash hit at the box office last year.
During an interview with Screen Rant, Serkis has been chatting about his version of the Rudyard Kipling tale, and how it differs from the Disney movie.
“Well, ours is using performance capture, and theirs didn’t,” states Serkis. “Ours is shot on location, it’s in real locations, we shot in South Africa. [The film] is very much more like live action photography… We have these actors who played the animals as opposed to [just voicing] the animals, so there’s a great difference in that. The way of embodying that character and owning that role all the way through the conception and authorship of the role. [This version], as [in] the book, is grounded in India. It’s colonial and turn of the century, so it has that sort of authenticity and, I suppose, that sense of [being] closer to Rudyard Kipling’s world.”
Serkis also discussed the film’s delay, stating that: ““I’ve got to say that personally I’m absolutely thrilled that Warner Brothers have changed the delivery date of our movie. The ambition for this project is huge. What we are attempting is an unprecedented level of psychological and emotional nuance in morphing the phenomenal performances of our cast into the facial expressions of our animals.”
Jungle Book is slated for release in 2018, and features a cast that includes Rohan Chand (Mowgli), Benedict Cumberbatch (Shere Khan), Cate Blanchett (Kaa), Christian Bale (Bagheera), Naomie Harris (Nisha), Tom Hollander (Tabaqui), Peter Mullan (Akela) and Eddie Marsan (Vihaan).
