"Animal Farm' Mo-Cap Feature Adaptation by Andy Serkis

[BLUEGRASS]

This sounds very interesting. If there is one person who knows a thing or two about motion capture, it is Andy Serkis

Gollum actor and budding filmmaker Andy Serkis has confirmed that he plans to shoot his $50 million mo-cap feature adaptation of George Orwell's Animal Farm in the second half of 2014.

Announced over a year ago by his Imaginarium performance capture studio, Serkis makes his directorial debut on the project. Orwell's classic tale follows a group of revolutionary animals on an English farm is a thinly veiled allegory about how the rise of Stalinism in the Soviet Union over the preceding two decades.

Appearing at the Cinematic Innovation Summit (CIS) in Dubai on Thursday, Serkis says: We’ve started pre-vis which in the virtual world in many instances means you’ve already started shooting the film. Principal photography will take place in the middle to third quarter of next year.

German concept artist Michael Kutsche (Thor, Maleficent, The Amazing Spider-Man 2) has been employed on the project to create a "heightened design aesthetic". Explaining that last line, Serkis says:

What we’re trying to do is fairly unique. It’s going to be entirely performance captured, so rather than photographing real animals and showing them with talking mouths, it will all be generated by the interaction between the actors playing those roles…the physicality and facial expressions of all the animals will come directly from actors’ performances.

The design for those has to work in a particular way and it’s a particular heightened design look we’re going for. We also have to find a balancing aesthetic for the environment in which we situate the characters. We’re experimenting shooting with live action plates but with a heightened design…it’s not just shooting in a field.

A cast won't be announced until financing is completed in 2014. A studio isn't expected to be involved until much further down the line.

SOURCE: http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/299...hoot-next-year

[Mandalorian]

Holy shit. I'm in.

[CoolRanch]

[Darth Marcus]

Source: Deadline

Netflix Acquires George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm;’ Andy Serkis Directs & Matt Reeves Produces
by Mike Fleming Jr - August 1, 2018 1:01pm

EXCLUSIVE: 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 made an overall Netflix deal last January.

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.”

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.”

[captveg]

Excellent. I was hoping Serkis would get to make this someday.

[ditcin]

Thank you, I'll stick with the Hallmark film.