This is a great news! Mowgli, now called Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, is going to be release in few selected cinemas (Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and London) on November 29, 2018, followed by the global relased on Netflix set for December 7,2018.
A new trailer and a new poster have been released today: you can hear Cate’s voice as Kaa (the serpent) at 2:05. Enjoy!
Hello everyone!
Some important news about the movie Mowgli in which Cate Blanchett plays the snake Kaa. Take a look:
Netflix Acquires Andy Serkis-Directed ‘Mowgli’ From Warner Bros & Plans 2019 Global Streaming Release
Welcome to the jungle that is this fast-shifting movie meld between theatrical release and streaming. In the biggest acquisition of a finished film it has made so far, Netflix has acquired from Warner Bros the worldwide rights to Mowgli, the CGI live action film directed by Andy Serkis based on the Jungle Book stories of Rudyard Kipling. Instead of an October 19 theatrical release by Warner Bros, the film will be released globally on Netflix next year, with a theatrical component built in so that audiences can see the 3D version that Serkis has been working so hard on.
The film has a cast that includes Christian Bale as the cunning panther Bagheera, Cate Blanchett as the sinister snake Kaa, Benedict Cumberbatch as the deadly tiger Shere Khan, Moonlight‘s Naomie Harris as the female wolf Nisha, and Serkis as the wise bear Baloo. Surrounding them in live action roles are The Americans‘ Matthew Rhys, Freida Pinto and Rohan Chand, who after appearing in the films The Hundred-Foot Journey and Bad Words, plays Mowgli, the boy raised by wolves.
In buying worldwide rights from Warner Bros, Netflix gets a first-rate studio-caliber film made by Serkis, who has turned in groundbreaking performance capture and CGI work in films like The Lord of The Rings as Gollum, King Kong, and The Planet Of The Apes films. Serkis and Warner Bros get out from under the inevitable stigma that would have haunted a full scale theatrical release of a film that would inevitably be compared to Disney’s The Jungle Book, which grossed $966 million worldwide. At one point, there was a race between that film and Mowgli — both based on Kipling’s public domain work — but it is never good to be runner up, especially when the other one became such a big hit.
Serkis made Mowgli with 3D effects he hopes can be displayed in a theatrical component that will be part of Netflix’s release plans. But here, he will get an enormous global audience and see through his vision for a story that is darker and more dangerous than the one Jon Favreau directed for Disney.
[…]Once the ticking clock stopped and they stopped worrying about beating their rival, Serkis and his film making team took their time to focus on the strengths of their film. They sought guidance from outsiders, like when Oscar winning Gravity director Alfonso Cuaron spent a couple weeks dispensing wisdom, while Serkis was off shooting War for the Planet of the Apes. “We took our time with the performance capture, allowing the animators to make the most of the great performances by Blanchett, Cumberbatch and Christian Bale, to bring them to life in the most extraordinary way we could,” Serkis said.
The movie was shot in South Africa and made to reflect the jungles of India and its civilization during the 19th Century.
“I wanted to make it of its time and reflect Kipling’s own journey,” Serkis told Deadline. “His first language was [Hindi], and he was brought up in India, and then came to live in England. There, he suffered brutality and bullying because he was an outsider, and I think that sense of otherness came through in his Jungle Book stories and the character of Mowgli. Kipling’s work has been interpreted in a lot of different ways, and his writing since his glory days back then has been somewhat vilified for his depiction of globalism. There is a racist element to many of his stories and poems. You cannot ignore, though, that he wrote and reflected the political situation at the time, and in a mild way, the film examines emotions of class and colonialization of India.” Class comparison metaphors are there in contrasting the relationship between the British, the villagers, and the animals of the jungle.
“All these themes are attached to a live action movie that has the real feel of being shot on location of real jungle sets in South Africa,” Serkis said.
[…]“I’m really excited about Netflix for Mowgli,” Serkis said. “Now, we avoid comparisons to the other movie and it’s a relief not to have the pressure. I’ve seen the 3D version, and it’s exceptional, a different view from the 2D version, really lush and with great depth, and there will be some kind of theatrical component for that. What excites me most is the forward thinking at Netflix in how to present this, and the message of the movie. They understand this is a darker telling that doesn’t fit it into a four quadrant slot. It’s really not meant for young kids, though I think it’s possible that 10 or above can watch it. It was always meant to be PG-13, and this allows us to go deeper, with darker themes, to be scary and frightening in moments. The violence between animals is not gratuitous, but it’s definitely there. This way of going allows us to get the film out without compromise.
[…]This takes to a new level the deals that Netflix has been making with movie companies looking to lay off risk on their projects. That included buying rights to Paramount’s Cloverfield sequel God Particle, advertising it as a surprise on the Super Bowl and launching it right after the game, to acquiring the foreign rights to New Line’s new Shaft movie from Warner Bros and New Line, which will play on Netflix’s offshore service two weeks after the domestic theatrical release, and offshore rights on the Alex Garland-directed Natalie Portman-starrer Annihilation from Paramount, which began running 17 days after its domestic theatrical launch. It is eyed as a new model for films that have a hard time gaining traction overseas, but the Mowgli deal is much different in scope and scale.
Callie Kloves wrote the script. Pic is an Imaginarium Productions film that is produced by Steve Kloves, Jonathan Cavendish and David Barron, with Nikki Penny exec producing. Peter Mullan, Jack Reynor, Eddie Marsan and Tom Hollander rounds out the voice and live action cast.
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Good evening, folks. The live-action movie changes name one more time: from Jungle Book, to Jungle Book: Origins, to Mowgli.
Warner Bros.’ has changed the name of the Andy Serkis live-action Jungle Book movie from “Jungle Book: Origins” to “Mowgli.”
The studio made the announcement Tuesday. Serkis is directing the movie, which will open on Oct. 19, 2018 — more than two years after Disney launched its live-action version of “The Jungle Book” with Jon Favreau directing. The project is based on Rudyard Kipling series “The Jungle Book,” which follows the upbringing of the human child Mowgli, raised by a wolf pack in the jungles of India.
Voice cast includes Christian Bale as Bagheera, Cate Blanchett as Kaa, Benedict Cumberbatch as Shere Khan, Naomie Harris as Nisha, Andy Serkis, Baloo, Peter Mullan as Akela, Jack Reynor as Mowgli’s Brother Wolf, Eddie Marsan as Vihaan, Tom Hollander as Tabaqui, Freida Pinto as Messua, and Matthew Rhys as Lockwood.
via Variety
Good morning! Andy Serkis, director of Jungle Book, (formerly known as Jungle Book: Origins) set for October 2018, gives us some news on the motion-capture animated movie.
MOTION capture expert Andy Serkis says that Cate Blanchett is “phenomenal” in his coming version of The Jungle Book.
The Aussie two-time Oscar-winner plays the snake Kaa in the version being directed by Serkis, alongside fellow Oscar-winner Christian Bale as panther Bagheera, and Oscar nominee Benedict Cumberbatch as the villainous tiger Shere Khan.
Serkis, most famous for his playing Gollum in the Lord Of the Rings trilogy, is still working on the film using his state of the art technology and this month had his LOTR co-star Blanchett slithering around on the floor in a motion capture suit.
“I was working with her a couple of weeks ago,” Serkis said. “You should see her — and one day you will. You will some amazing footage of her doing just that and it’s phenomenal.”
Serkis, the world’s premiere motion capture expert thanks to his work as Gollum, King Kong and Caesar the chimp in the Planet Of the Apes trilogy, says that it’s now easy to attract A-list talent to what was once seen as a gimmick, with actors excited by the possibilities it presents.
“There is a sense of actors wanting this,” he said. “Philosophically it offers you so much. Your career can go on and you can keep expanding and changing into different things and you can play anything. When you have had a long career like Cate or Benedict Cumberbatch or Christian Bale, to then have the ability to go ‘wow, there is this whole other world where I can play all these different things’. You can play a panther or tiger and fully embody it — not just stand in a booth and do a voice but to really become it and own it. It is a phenomenal 21st Century tool for an actor.”
via News Australia
Photo in the top image from 2006: complete photoshoot here
We have to wait a year more to admire Cate Blanchett’s Kaa.
What with all the hullabaloo about Jon Favreau and Disney’s effects-filled take on The Jungle Book, which arrives here next week, you might be forgiven for forgetting that Andy Serkis has been working on his own version. But if you were excited by that prospect, you’re going to have to be even more patient, as Warner Bros. has moved Jungle Book: Origins back a year to 2018 in a new round of schedule shuffling.
The movie has already seen one release date change, and had the disadvantage of arriving a while after Favreau’s film. But perhaps a further shift will actually be to its advantage, allowing memories to cool and comparisons to dim. After having worked extensively on the Hobbit trilogy as a second unit director, he’s stepping up to using this as his full directorial debut, having recruited the likes of Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hollander, Matthew Rhys andNaomie Harris to provide the performance capture for the various animals, and playing Baloo himself.
The Jungle Book adaptation is shifting to October 19, 2018.
via Empire Online
The Jungle Book: Origins, Warner Bros.’s version of the Rudyard Kipling stories, has seen its release date pushed back by almost a year.
The studio has moved the opening date from Oct. 21, 2016 to Oct. 6, 2017.
It hasn’t abandoned that time, however, for at the same time, Warners has moved Geostorm, an environmental thriller starring Gerard Butler, into that Oct. 21 date.
Warners is competing with Disney on live-action Jungle Book adaptations, with the Disney project, currently in production with Jon Favreau at the helm, swinging to an Oct. 9, 2015 date.
Warners’ version is still in the early development stages with Andy Serkis attached to direct.
Sources say that the initial date was more of a placeholder than a firmly planted release date. There is a growing trend in distribution circles of grabbing dates and using them as temporary berths for movies before these cinematic souffles are fully baked.
The new date also gives additional time for Serkis and co. to further work on the special effects-heavy project.
The move not only puts some time and space between Disney’s movie, but it also puts some distance between it and the studio’s other jungle-swinging movie, Tarzan. The latter also opens on July 1, 2016.
Good news! New project for Cate! Via THR:
Warner Bros. has cast an entire zoo’s worth of actors for its adaptation of The Jungle Book, which Andy Serkis is directing.
Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Naomie Harris, Tom Hollander, Eddie Marsan and Peter Mullan are joining Benedict Cumberbatch to star as the animal characters in the feature. Rohan Chand, the young actor who starred opposite Jason Bateman in Bad Words, will star as the human boy Mowgli.Serkis will also take on a role.
Callie Kloves wrote the script, adapting the Rudyard Kipling short stories, while her father, Steve Kloves, the screenwriter who wrote seven of the Harry Potter films for the studio, is producing with Jonathan Cavendish. The movie will employ a mix of motion capture, CG animation and live action.
Jungle Book centers on Mowgli, an orphaned boy raised by wolves who befriends members of the animal kingdom who help him grow up. Serkis will play Baloo the bear, and Bale will voice Bagheera, a fearsome panther, both of whom save Mowgli from the killer tiger Shere Khan (Cumberbatch) and teach him the law of the jungle.
Blanchett will voice Kaa, a sinister python who is also a friend to Mowgli, while Hollander will play Tabaqui, the jackal who is an underling of Shere Khan.
Mullan will be Akela, the leader of the wolf pack that raises Mowgli. Harris is the female wolf Nisha, while Marsan is her mate, Vihaan.
With the casting now complete, Warners’ Jungle Book is ready to go ape-to-ape with Disney, which is also mounting a live-action/CG hybrid with Jon Favreau in the director’s chair.
Jon Berg and Cate Adams are overseeing the project for Warners.
Jungle Book is a rare move for Bale (WME, Bloom Hergott), who last voiced a character in the English translation of Howl’s Moving Castle (2004). Blanchett (CAA, RGM Artist Group) voiced one of the key characters in this summer’s How to Train Your Dragon 2.
Harris (UTA, Untitled Entertainment, the U.K.’s Tavistock Wood) portrayed Winnie Mandela in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, while Hollander (UTA, 42) appeared in Muppets Most Wanted and has voiced many characters in American Dad!
Marsan (the U.K.’s Markham Froggatt) appears on Showtime’s Ray Donovan and was seen in Edgar Wright’s The World’s End. Mullan (ICM Partners, Markham Froggatt) appeared in Hercules.
Chand is repped by Paradigm, Coast to Coast Talent and Myman Greenspan.