Jungle Book: Origins may not be Andy Serkis’ first directorial release after all. With his Kipling adaptation pushed back to 2018, Serkis has another filmmaking gig to fill the gap in his diary with true-life tale, Breathe. He’s enlisted Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy to play its leads.
Garfield takes the role of Robin Cavendish, a polio-sufferer who not only survived the illness (and life on a respirator) but flourished, while Wolf Hall’s Foy will play his wife, Diana Blacker.
The former Spider-Man plays a different kind of hero in this one. Robin Cavendish, initially diagnosed with polio at 28 and given only three months to live, went on to raise money for charity, test out pioneering new equipment and champion the cause of the disabled. All while paralysed from the neck down.
"He had a natural graciousness,” relayed The Independent’s obituary in 1994, "his lack of evident resentment at his own condition made helping him a positive pleasure.”
Like Daniel Day Lewis in My Left Foot, John Hawkes in The Sessions and, more recently, Eddie Redmayne in The Theory Of Everything, this one looks a likely awards shout for the actor and potentially for his co-star. A screenplay by Oscar-nominee William Nicholson (Gladiator, Shadowlands) won’t hurt their chances either.
"I’m very excited by the prospect of working with Andrew,” enthuses Serkis. "He is a remarkably gifted actor, capable of finding and expressing the deep emotions experienced by Robin, in spite of his disability."
"Claire is blessed with a diverse and exceptional range of work and is one of the UK's most respected young actresses,” he adds. "She’s the perfect emotional foil to Andrew’s Robin and brings great strength of character to the pivotal role of Diana."