Netflix is looking to stay in the Andy Serkis business. A few days after buying his Jungle Book adaptation Mowgli from Warner Bros., the streaming service has also grabbed the rights to make his version of Animal Farm.
Bringing the politically-flavoured George Orwell farm tale to life has long been a dream for Serkis – he announced back in 2012 that he was going to direct a version of the story using his Imaginarium team and the same performance capture techniques he's since employed for Mowgli.
The 1945 allegorical novella drew from the Russian revolution of 1917 and the Stalinist regime. It involves a group of animals who rebel against the humans who own their farm and win their independence. The architects of the revolution create a utopian environment based on equality, but a pig named Napoleon twists the original intent, slowly eliminates his rivals and enacts seven commandments the most basic of which declares that "all animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
Now it appears he'll finally be going ahead with it, and Matt Reeves, who directed him on the last two Planet Of The Apes movies, is on board as a producer (having hatched his own Netflix deal in January). "We are incredibly excited to have finally found the perfect creative home in Netflix for this extraordinarily zeitgeist work by George Orwell," Serkis tells Deadline. "On top of that, to be re-united with my great friend Matt Reeves – with his acute sensitivity, storytelling intelligence and honesty and command in this realm – is to have the very best scenario for our long-held passion to bring this fable alive."
There's no schedule for the movie yet, but given the fresh backing, expect to hear more soon. Mowgli, meanwhile, will now arrive next year.
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