Mowgli: First official trailer for Andy Serkis's Jungle Book movie is here

Another adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's book coming soon

There are few stories as lasting as The Jungle Book, the tale of a boy raised by wolves having been adapted to multiple formats.

Two years ago, Disney’s re-imagining of their own animated adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s book was released, grossing the company almost $1 billion at the box office.

Now comes Andy Serkis’s own version, Mowgli (formerly Jungle Book Origins), which will see the titular character engage with mankind once more.

Featuring an astounding voice cast – including Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Benedict Cumberbatch, Naomie Harris, and Tom Hollander – and directed by Serkis, the first trailer has been released online, teasing perhaps the darkest Jungle Book retelling yet.

Mowgli has long been in development, principle photography having started back in March 2015. Serkis has previously put the long wait down to the ambitious CGI his studio, Imaginarium, has been working on.

“The ambition for this project is huge,” the director, who will also star as Baloo, previously said. “What we are attempting is an unprecedented level of psychological and emotional nuance in morphing the phenomenal performances of our cast into the facial expressions of our animals.

“We are breaking new ground with realistic non-humanoid animal faces, such as a panther or wolf, ensuring that they convincingly communicate with human language and emotion via performance capture, and are able to stand up to real scrutiny in richly complex dramatic scenes.”

Serkis previously directed Breathe, which reached cinemas last year. Oddly enough, Mowgli filmed a year before Breathe.

Mowgli reaches cinemas 19 October 2018.