‘Mowgli’ Trailer & Featurette Showcase Andy Serkis’ Directorial Debut

Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for ‘Mowgli‘, the extremely realistic and “serious” take on ‘The Jungle Book‘. Although Disney released a live-action remake of the same story only a few years ago, this film looks to differentiate itself as much as possible from that adaptation as it can. Newcomer Rohan Chand steps into the title character this time, but the story of Mowgli being torn between his upbringing in the jungle and his human heritage essentially remains the same.

While this trailer is serviceable at best, what’s really exciting about the project is the heavy involvement of Director/Actor/Producer Andy Serkis. Although his impressive filmography as an actor is nothing to scoff at, Serkis is no stranger to the director’s chair, having served as a second-unit director on several high-profile films such as ‘The Hobbit‘ trilogy. To be honest, it’s really great to see Serkis finally get the spotlight on what is supposedly a passion project for the actor, and this accompanying featurette goes to show how excited he is to bring a more “accurate” adaptation to life. Here’s the featurette:

[su_youtube url=”https://youtu.be/KjJ0j0Z3U2w”]

As the featurette points out, ‘Mowgli‘ also stars Christian Bale as Bagheera; Cate Blanchett as Kaa;  Benedict Cumberbatch as Shere Khan; Naomie Harris as Nisha; Andy Serkis as Baloo; Peter Mullan as Akela; Jack Reynor as Mowgli’s Brother Wolf; Eddie Marsan as Nisha’s mate, Vihaan; and Tom Hollander as Tabaqui. The film is set to hit theaters on October 19, 2018. In the meantime, Here’s the first official trailer, Images & Synopsis for the film:

[su_youtube url=”https://youtu.be/GpxCT36DxKg”]

“The story follows the upbringing of the human child Mowgli, raised by a wolf pack in the jungles of India. As he learns the often harsh rules of the jungle, under the tutelage of a bear named Baloo and a panther named Bagheera, Mowgli becomes accepted by the animals of the jungle as one of their own. All but one: the fearsome tiger Shere Khan. But there may be greater dangers lurking in the jungle, as Mowgli comes face to face with his human origins.”