19 Dec – No this is not déjà vu. As previously reported, after Disney's "The Jungle Book" (2016), Warner Bros. are also releasing their very own live-action version of "The Jungle Book" and new updates have now revealed its new title. According to the latest 2018 movie lineup from Warner Bros., it is stated that the previously titled "Jungle Book: Origins" is now known as "Mowgli" and has been dated for 18 October 2018. This confirms what director Andy Serkis had previously revealed in a recent interview with Variety, where the film's title of "Mowgli" was first hinted at. "[That title is] not 100%, but it's more than likely heading in that direction. Because it's much more about that character. It's a Mowgli-centric story. It's about identity. The film really examines, in a tone that's much closer to Rudyard Kipling's book, what it is to be other," was what Serkis said before Warner Bros. finally confirmed it. Having been working on the film since 2014, actor and performance capture maestro Serkis - who played Gollum in "The Lord Of The Rings" movies, Caesar in the "Planet of the Apes" trilogy and most recently Supreme Leader Snoke in "Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi" - had an all-star cast work on the film, like its Disney counterpart. For the performance capture roles which is handled by Serkis' own Imaginarium Studios utilising new motion capture technology, Serkis himself will play the Baloo the bear, Christian Bale the panther Bagheera, Benedict Cumberbatch will play the formidable tiger Shere Khan, Tom Hollander as Tabaqui the jackal, Cate Blanchett as Kaa the python, Peter Mullan as Akela the wolf and Naomie Harris as Raksha, Mowgli's motherly wolf. The human characters will be led by Rohan Chand ("Bad Words") who plays the titular Mowgli, along with Matthew Rhys ("The American") and Freida Pinto ("Slumdog Millionaire").
Originally scheduled for October 2016, Warner Bros. moved the film to allow for more visual effects work to be done and assumedly to distance the film away from Disney's live-action adaptation which was based on their 1967's animation musical of the same name. Warner Bros' "Mowgli" is said to be darker and closer to the source material; Rudyard Kipling's 1894 "The Jungle Book" collection of stories.