Netflix Acquires Andy Serkis’ Adaptation of ‘Animal Farm’

Days after acquiring his film Mowgli from Warner Bros, Netflix has doubled down with Andy Serkis by acquiring rights to the George Orwell novel Animal Farm. Serkis will direct a performance-capture film. 6th & Idaho’s Matt Reeves, Rafi Crohn and Adam Kassan will produce with The Imaginarium’s Serkis and Jonathan Cavendish.

The Netflix deal reunites Serkis with Reeves after they worked together on Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes. Reeves signed an overall Netflix deal in January and has been hard at work on his Batman solo film since completed the rebooted Apes trilogy.

The allegorical novella by Orwell was published in 1945, and the author said it was informed by the Russian revolution of 1917 and the subsequent Stalinist regime of the Soviet Union. If you didn’t read it in school, the premise involves a group of animals who rebel against the humans who own the farm, and win their independence. The architects of the revolution create a utopian environment based on equality, but a pig named Napoleon twists the original intent, slowly eliminates his rivals and enacts seven commandments, the basic of which declares that “all animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

Serkis and Cavendish have wanted to make this movie for years and Serkis originally planned to play a role in the film when The Imaginarium first made a rights deal with the George Orwell Estate in 2012.

“We are incredibly excited to have finally found the perfect creative home in Netflix, for this extraordinarily zeitgeist work by George Orwell,” Serkis said in a statement. “On top of that, to be re-united with my great friend Matt Reeves, with his acute sensitivity, storytelling intelligence and honesty, and command in this realm, is to have the very best scenario for our long held passion to bring this fable alive.”

Are you excited for an Animal Farm film? Let us know in the comments down below!

Source – Deadline