Andy Serkis admits making ‘Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle’ shortly after 2016’s ‘The Jungle Book’ made Warner Bros. "fearful".
The 54-year-old star has directed the latest movie based on the work of writer Rudyard Kipling, and Andy has revealed how Disney’s ‘The Jungle Book’ impacted his own production.
He shared: "Every aspect of the creative process was a joyful experience.
"The only major problem in the whole thing when the script was commissioned at Warner Bros around 2011 – I came on board in 2013 – was that another production was looming all of a sudden. And that really began to make the studio fearful."
However, Andy was calm about the situation as he knew the Disney movie – which featured the voices of Idris Elba and Scarlett Johansson – would have a very different tone.
Speaking to the BBC, he explained: "[The other film] never really bothered me because I knew that the Disney remit was very particular.
"It was always going to be a four-quadrant, big, wide, family, popcorn film probably emulating the 1967 animation, using the songs etc.
"Ours was nowhere near that story, we were doing something completely different. We were going back to the source material, I knew exactly the tone of the story I wanted to tell, coming from the tone of the book, so none of that really bothered me."
Asked whether having to follow ‘The Jungle Book’ was a disadvantage, Andy added: "Creatively, not.
"I’m happy that I have made the film that I set out to make. I suppose in terms of perception, there was a shadow cast to a certain degree, in terms of the commercial aspect.
"Jon Favreau’s version made $960 million at the box office, so people ascribe a success to that, and I umm’d and ahh’d about seeing the movie for a long time.
"We’d made our movie, we were in the long post production when theirs came out … I think [Warner Bros] took the brunt, the big fear of ‘how can we compete with that’, but in terms of the creativity, I just didn’t waver."
Andy Serkis says movie studio fretted over Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
