First Official Trailer Released for Andy Serkis’ ‘Mowgli’ Film

Fans of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book will be pleased to learn that a film adaptation is set to be released later this year. Simply called Mowgli, the film will be a darker adaptation than those seen over the years and is being directed by Andy Serkis, who is perhaps best known for being the motion capture actor for Gollum in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

The film has been in the works for several years but now we finally get a look at what to expect with the release of the first official trailer. The film uses motion capture technology to capture the actors’ facial expressions as well as their voices, so the main animals look somewhat similar to the actors and actresses voicing them.

Christian Bales voices Bagheera the panther, Cate Blanchett is Kaa the giant snake, Benedict Cumberbatch is the dangerous tiger Shere Khan, Andy Serkis is Baloo the bear, and Rohan Chand will play the role of Mowgli. If you’re interested in learning more about the motion capture technology used in the film then check out this cool behind-the-scenes video.

Mowgli is not connected to the 2016 live action Disney film The Jungle Book, other than the fact they’re both based on the same book. Serkis’ film is not a sequel and will apparently be more true to the source material’s darker tone. As Serkis himself stated: “[The film] has a much darker approach to the story-telling. There’s no singing and dancing by the animals, that’s for sure.” Mowgli is set to be released later this year on October 19.