‘Animal Farm’ By Andy Serkis.
Andy Serkis’ adaptation of George Orwell’s novella “Animal Farm” was announced almost a decade ago, and it has finally wrapped production. Serkis is directing the satirical allegorical story, which will be animated. Nicholas Stroller (Yes Man, Neighbors 2) wrote the script. Serkis and Connie Thompson (Despicable Me 2) will produce alongside The Imaginarium Studios. Netflix acquired the film and will distribute.
Serkis is a master in digital and VFX acting. He is voicing ‘Benjamin’ in the film, but no other voice actors were announced since starting production in 2022, until now. The latest update about the film reveals that Kieran Culkin (Succession) has joined the cast and is voicing ‘Squealer’.
Premise: Animal Farm is a satirical novella, in the form of a beast fable, by George Orwell. It tells the story of a group of anthropomorphic farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free and happy. The animals on the farm lead a revolution against the farmers to put their destiny in their own hands, however this revolution eats their own children and they cannot avoid corruption.
In July 2011, a feature film adaptation of “Animal Farm” was announced to be in development, with Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) serving as director. Wyatt and Andy Serkis (Mowgli, Venom), who worked together on “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”, were slated to serve as co-screenwriters. By October 2012, Serkis was announced to have taken over directorial duties, with the project being developed as a HFR-3D film. In August 2018, Netflix purchased distribution rights to the film.
After numerous delays, Serkis once again began pre-production on the project, after completing his directing duties for “Venom: Let There Be Carnage”. (2021)
By April 2022, it was announced that production had commenced as an animated film at Cinesite Studios, with a screenplay written by Nicholas Stroller. Stroller wrote a script from a previous draft that was co-written by Rupert Wyatt and Serkis. Wyatt will serve as executive producer.
“The challenging journey to bring this extraordinary story to the screen has been finally rewarded by the opportunity to partner with the brilliant team at Aniventure and Cinesite” Serkis said. “Together we hope to make our version of Orwell’s ever relevant masterpiece, emotionally powerful, humorous and relatable for all ages. A tale not only for our times, but for generations to come”.
Speaking to Collider in 2023, Serkis gave an update about the theme of the film; “Well, obviously it’s a contemporary retelling of George Orwell’s fairytale, as it’s known and is written in the book. It’s a brilliant allegory, and it’s sadly eternally relevant, about absolute power corrupting absolutely. But there is also, in our iteration of it, there is a lot of humor. And the satire is funny, and it’s a family film. it’s meant for everybody. So, there are lots of layers to it, and there’s humor for all ages” .
Serkis was recently revealed to be directing a Gollum [Lord of the Rings] film which will be split into two parts for Warner Bros. He will reprise his role as Gollum. In a Deadline piece about the announcement in May 2024, It was reported that Serkis has, supposedly, wrapped filming ‘Animal Farm’.
George Orwell’s novel was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005. It also won Orwell a retrospective Hugo Award. It is taught amongst British schools to this day, and remains both alarmingly relevant and timely, even now.
“Animal Farm” has had a number of adaptations in the 77 years since it was published, including a hybrid live-action CGI version in 1999. There was also an animated version of the book that was released in 1954 as anti-Communist propaganda film.
