7. Andy Serkis Directing The Jungle Book For Warner Bros.
A few weeks ago we reported that Ron Howard was circling the live action Jungle Book film over at Warner Bros., but now we've learned that the director has passed on the project, and Andy Serkis will take the director's chair instead. This will be Serkis' directorial debut, and his extensive motion capture experience should serve him well. There's a competing Jungle Book adaptation in the works over at Disney; with Jon Favreau at the helm and Idris Elba taking on the role of Shere Khan. The WB adaptation has taken a bit longer to get off the ground, but now that Serkis is behind the wheel hopefully things will start moving forward. There's still no word yet on whether or not Serkis will star in the film as well, but considering how often he loves donning the goofy mo-cap suit, I wouldn't put it past him.