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We’ve known about an Andy Serkis-directed, live-action Jungle Book movie project (not to be confused with Andy Serkis’s motion capture Animal Farm movie) for a while now, but Warner Bros has made it official, setting an October 2016 release date. Unfortunately, the Gods of public domain giveth and the Gods of public domain taketh away, because a rival Jungle Book project from Disney is opening a year earlier. And Disney seems to be playing hardball, announcing the casting of Bill Murray and Christopher Walken the same week as the Serkis movie’s release date announcement.
Also, the title of the Serkis version is going to be Jungle Book: Origins. Hmm, why does that sound so lame and generic?
WWE Studio’s ‘Leprechaun: Origins’ Gets Theatrical Release (EXCLUSIVE)
Lionsgate and WWE Studios, which had planned to release “Leprechaun: Origins” direct to home entertainment platforms on Aug. 26, will now also give the film a limited release in theaters on Aug. 22, after a presentation for the film was well received as Comic-Con in San Diego last month. [Variety]
Ah, so your live-action adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling classic shares a naming convention with a WWE-produced reboot about a scary leprechaun? That’s just good company. But don’t worry, Warner has a fool-proof plan to really differentiate their product from the other ones on the market, something that has probably never been done before:
Steve and Callie Kloves wrote the script for Jungle Book: Origins. (You may recognize his name from the Harry Potter films.) Specifics are being kept under wraps for now, but Serkis’ film is described as being darker than the rival project being developed by Jon Favreau at Disney. [/Film]
Whoa, it’s going to be DARKER? I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before. I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves here, but could it also be “gritty?”
As the title suggests, Jungle Book: Origins is intended to launch a franchise. [/Film]
Yeah good luck with that.
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Aw, it’s cute that they think they can compete with Bill Murray and Christopher Walken.
Wait, I’m not a linguist, but if you’re making a possesive of Andy Serkis, wouldn’t it be Serkis’ rather than Serkis’s? I’m actually genuinely curious.
Also, oy, this movie. Seriously. Where’s that Sisko facepalm gif when you need it?
I think it’s Serkis’, but either may be correct now that I think about it.
Get it? Black people all look the same!
gyuh, did I get banhammered?
Its Andy Serkis’s. 100%.
This movie is going to blow. “PLANET OF THE APES AND EVERYTHING ELSE” cannot compete with the cast of the other Jungle Book movie.
Serkis’
wait, live action? so is andy serkis not going to mo-cap himself portraying jungle-dwelling peoples?
Andy Serkis is mocapping himself playing an ape that’s mocapping Andy Serkis directing a Jungle Book movie, all in a gravely serious manner without a hint of self-awareness
Serkis kept insisting that ALL of the animals in his Jungle Book be apes. Shere Khan? Ape. Baloo? Ape. Kaa? Ape. Bagheera? Ape. Mowgli? Hairless Ape. King Louie? Surprise! Not an ape.
Kind Louie will still be an ape, but he’ll also be mo-capped by an ape making him a double ape.
“King Louie”…fucknuts.
Kind Louie sounds nice.
Kind Louie was not funny at all this season.
Kind Louie is that Phishhead from the dorms that sells that chronic sh*t, dog. Dude’s tight like hallways, smoked out always. Whoop.
Don’t know where else to put this, but is Brendon already done doing weekly posts?
curious about the same thing, but his twitter was silent so maybe just a vacation?
He is not what you’d call an avid tweeter.
Jungle book origins is about when Kipling sat down and wrote the book. DARKER because there weren’t light bulbs back then. GRITTIER he writes it on sandpaper.
dark and gritty, like jungle scat
I’m much more excited about the new version of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle book, starring Andy Serkis as meat.
How long is it going to take him to prepare to mo-cap that?
He’s intently studying a side of beef as we speak.
How racist is this on gonna be?
Child gets abandoned in jungle. Promptly attacked and eaten by animals who contract blood borne virus. Many endangered species go extinct.
WALL-Ebola
What is Ebola: Origins?
This is just so mind-blowingly stupid that I can’t even be bothered to come up with a pithy comment. My brain saw the combination of “Jungle Book,” “Origins,” “darker” and “franchise” and just Red Ring of Death’d itself.
UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH