11 Mar - From an ape to a mouse; it's a good thing Andy Serkis doesn't have musophobia (presumably, since he did take this role) or we wouldn't be seeing him in the movie adaptation of "Mouse Guard". Serkis will once again be working his motion capture magic to play an anthropomorphic mouse in the fantasy action movie, which will have Peter Jackson's Weta Digital providing the MoCap technology as well as visual effects. According to That Hashtag Show, Serkis is set to star as the villainous Midnight, a former Mouse Guard who takes up the Black Axe and seeks to overthrow the brotherhood of mice. The actor joins a cast that currently has "Breaking Bad's" Giancarlo Esposito playing an older mouse called Conrad, who is a part of the Guard's seaside outpost Calogero, while "The Maze Runner" star Thomas Brodie-Sangster is in talks to play Lieam, a young member of the Mouse Guard. Christian Bale originally signed on to play Lieam's mentor, Kelenaw, but is now being replaced due to undisclosed reasons.
On this project, Serkis reunites with "War for the Planet of the Apes" director Matt Reeves, who is serving as producer. If Brodie-Sangster accepts the offer, he too will be reuniting with his "The Maze Runner" director Wes Ball, who will be helming "Mouse Guard". Plans for a movie adaptation begun in 2016, with Reeves already on board to produce, but it wasn't until 2017 that Ball came on board as director. Production was supposed to have begun last January in Los Angeles on a USD150 million budget but that has been delayed since casting is still in progress now. "Mouse Guard" is based on the graphic novels by David Petersen. It tells of a brotherhood of mice living in medieval times that are sworn to protect the common folks (also mice, it's a world of mice).