Andy Serkis to Direct 'The Jungle Book' for Warner Bros.

As Disney moved forward with their live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book, with Jon Favreau directing and Idris Elba voicing Shere Khan, Warner Bros. had been stuck in neutral. Alejandro Gonzalez-Inarritu had been set to direct before he dropped out, with the studio turning to Ron Howard, instead. But it turns out it won't be Howard at the helm, as it will be Andy Serkis making his feature debut.

Talks with Howard didn't make it very far, and so Warner Bros. has turned to Serkis, who has a wealth of motion capture experience to draw from. It will come in handy for a film that will have plenty of CGI animals making up the story of Mowgli, an Indian orphan raised in the jungle.  While this may be Serkis' first time in charge of a project such as this, he's been getting plenty of training as 2nd Unit Director on Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy. He specifically worked on the brilliant barrel chase scene in The Desolation of Smaug.

Serkis had been looking to make his debut on an adaptation of Animal Farm, but who knows where that production is at now. He'll be seen next as Caesar in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.  What are the chances we see Serkis suit up as Baloo? [THR]