Andy Serkis’s MOWGLI has found distribution through the streaming giant Netflix, with a tentative release date for next year. The service plans to stream the film on its site while also allowing for theatrical showings of its originally-intended 3D version.
While many complain of Superhero fatigue in cinema, I find myself reeling with Disney live-action adaptation fatigue (no known treatment or cure), and the ever-extending slate from the Family-Friendly giant shows that I have no relief in sight. How refreshing it is, though, to learn of Serkis’s passion project of re-telling Kipling’s classic tale in a manner hewing near its original intent. Kipling, himself, was raised in India, his first language being Hindi, and then brought to England to attend schools where he was bullied and treated as an outsider. At the hands of his attackers he found metaphoric beasts which he later enmeshed in his classic Jungle Book story of a boy raised by wolves. The boy learns as he ages that he is not a wolf at all, and as he meets the menagerie of the larger world around him finds that his face is reflected in very few of his peers. It is this tale of an outsider forced to find his true self that Serkis has toiled for the past several years to tell, and although his production proceeded alongside the Disney version, ultimately their film won the race to theatrical release. Seeing this as a blessing in disguise, the multi-talented actor whom has become synonymous with motion-capture spent the time in post-production perfecting the animation and finding further avenues to differentiate his telling with that of the smashingly successful Disney release.
In terms of Netflix’s position, this is not just another feather in the cap of the streaming giant, but rather the largest acquisition of a finished film by a major studio. With motion and voice performances by Christian Bale (BATMAN BEGINS and most of the other Batmans you like) as panther Bagheera, Cate Blanchett (THOR: RAGNAROK, ELIZABETH) as python Kaa, Benedict Cumberbatch (SHERLOCK) as tiger Shere Khan, and Serkis as bear Baloo, the project brings not only a proven marketable story but sincere star-power, as well. And based on the trailer released earlier this year, it seems most everyone brought their A-game to this rendition.
Serkis is celebratory of the Netflix acquisition, seeing not only the benefit of skipping an embarrassing “Runner-Up” showing in theaters but also the alleviation of distribution concerns of age-appropriate marketing. Though the film will likely garner the Television version of a PG-13, it’s refreshing not to have to cater ad pushes towards a specific film-going audience. The version told in MOWGLI isn’t exactly a family film, but it also isn’t a Game of Thrones orgy of sex and blood, either. The filmmaker compares it to Netflix fare of the recent past like OKJA or LIFE OF PIE.
MOWGLI will begin streaming next year on Netflix. I know I’m excited to watch it; are you?
Until then, see you at the movies!
