Netflix is really loving being in the Andy Serkis business. Just days after picking up the director’s Mowgli from Warner Bros., the streaming giant has acquired his upcoming adaptation of George Orwell’s classic Animal Farm.
The performance-capture master is set to direct as well as produce the movie. Matt Reeves, with whom Serkis worked on the Planet of the Apes trilogy, will also produce alongside his 6th & Idaho companions Rafi Crohn and Adam Kassan, as well as Serkis’ The Imaginarium partner Jonathan Cavendish.
Serkis first snatched up the rights to Animal Farm in 2012 with plans on turning it into a television event series. For those who weren’t required to read the novella in high school English classes, Animal Farm is Orwell’s allegorical tale about the rise of Stalin in post-revolution Russia. The story follows a group of farm animals who rise up against their human overlords with the dream of building a utopian society. As the revolution progresses, however, a pig named Napoleon slowly undermines the animals’ goals, turning into a brutal dictator who rules with an iron hoof.
In a statement (via Deadline), Serkis said Netflix is “the perfect creative home” for the project, calling the deal “the very best scenario for our long-held passion to bring this fable alive.” Cavendish added that they plan to bring “Animal Farm to the screen in a thoroughly contemporary fashion, which will highlight the staggering relevance today of the satirical and dramatic power of Orwell’s re-imagined classic.”
Netflix plans to release Mowgli in theaters to coincide with its streaming release next year. There’s no word on if Animal Farm will also play on the big screen.
