Andy Serkis’ Jungle Book: Origins pushed back to 2017

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Warner Bros. has decided to push back Andy Serkis' JUNGLE BOOK: ORIGINS. The Serkis directed film was originally set to be released on October 21, 2016, but will now hit theaters on October 6, 2017.

Although no reason was given as to why it was pushed back almost a full year, the studio might be trying to put some more distance between their film and Disney and Jon Favreau's upcoming JUNGLE BOOK movie, which is scheduled to open on October 9, 2015. However, Serkis is also going to be busy filming for the next PLANET OF THE APES in the near future, and will likely need to do a lot of post-production work for JUNGLE BOOK: ORIGINS.

Andy Serkis has assembled a fantastic cast (which includes Benedict Cumberbatch, Christian Bale and Cate Blanchett) for his directorial debut, and earlier this month we learned performance capture will be used to transform the actors into animals.

Out of the two competing JUNGLE BOOK projects, I'm more excited for the Andy Serkis version than the Jon Favreau one, but only because I can't wait to see what Serkis does with his first film as a director. Which one do you think will end up being the better movie: Andy Serkis' JUNGLE BOOK: ORIGINS or Jon Favreau's THE JUNGLE BOOK?