Netflix has acquired “Mowgli,” a finished film directed by Andy Serkis, from Warner Bros., according to Deadline.
The movie stars Rohan Chand, an Indian American child actor, in the titular role, alongside Matthew Rhys, Freida Pinto and a voice cast that includes Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Naomie Harris.
Originally slated for release on Oct. 19, “Mowgli” will now release next year. That it comes on the heels of Disney’s “The Jungle Book,” the Neel Sethi-led pic which in 2016 grossed $966 million worldwide, is thought to have been a factor in the sale.
Serkis “Mowgli,” also based on Rudyard Kipling’s 1894 story collection “The Jungle Book,” is expected to be a darker version of Mowgli’s story and include the politics, and the social divides, of the era in which it’s set. It follows the child, raised by a pack of wolves in India’s jungles, who struggles to find acceptance from both animals and humans.
