10 Announced Movie Remakes That COULD Be Great

To date, there have been two film adaptations of George Orwell's seminal allegorical novel Animal Farm - a 1954 animation and a 1999 live-action take, and now a third is due to release this coming July.

But the big sell here is that it's being directed by Gollum himself, Andy Serkis, who of course has an acute understanding of how to bring "artificial" characters to life, while the script is being unexpectedly penned by Nicholas Stoller (Neighbors, Muppets Most Wanted).

Though Animal Farm is a tough nut to crack, evidenced by both prior adaptations receiving mixed notices from audiences and critics alike, this has been Serkis' passion project for the better part of 15 years.

That also makes it decidedly more likely that he isn't going to streamline or sanitise the more provocative and interesting aspects of Orwell's novel, as the other adaptations have been guilty of.

If this isn't the best Animal Farm movie to date - a fairly low bar, admittedly - then something's gone very, very wrong.