Andy Serkis has been spending the past few years making a new take on George Orwell’s Animal Farm – and it’s nearly ready.
Andy Serkis is certainly a busy gentleman. Although he last directed 2021’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage, he’s currently developing a brace of new films based in the world of The Lord Of The RIngs, the movies in which he made his name playing the conflicted creature, Gollum.
On the acting front, Serkis will soon be turning his attention to reprising the role of Alfred Pennyworth in Matt Reeves’ sequel to The Batman along with a couple of other film roles.
Then there’s his long in development take on Animal Farm, an adaptation of George Orwell’s classic cautionary tale of an animal uprising that goes seriously awry.
While the book itself is an absolute cornerstone of 20th century literature, it’s not without challenges to adapt (although a 2020 videogame made a good fist of it). After all, the tale is rooted within Russia’s revolutionary history during the early to mid 20th century. Do you adapt the tale as it is or try and update it to say something about the febrile state of geopolotics in the modern world, but in doing so lose what makes the original story so compelling?
We’re not sure, but we’re keen to find out more.
Cinesite, one of the companies behind the film, states that Animal Farm is now set for a 2025 release so we’re hoping that the date in question is accurate. Serkis has been working on this project for over a decade, with actual production beginning back in 2022. It’s an animated take but as yet, we still don’t know who the voice cast are.
The film was set up at Netflix at one point, but again but the streamer dropped the distribution rights a couple of years ago. Hopefully, that means the film will see the inside of a cinema at some point, but we’ll see.
There is an existing animated version of Animal Farm in the world, but it’s a tale that could do with a definitive take. We’ll bring you more news on this one as we hear it.