Trivia / Mowgli

• Acting for Two: While it is not especially noticeable, Andy Serkis plays both Baloo and the young Bandarlog monkey who tries to lure Mowgli with the fruit.
• All-Star Cast:
  • Warner Bros. has assembled a cast just as impressive as the cast for Disney's 2016 remake: Andy Serkis, Benedict Cumberbatch, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Eddie Marsan, Jack Reynor and Peter Mullan.
  • The Hindi dub has a few Bollywood stars: Abhishek Bachchan (Bagheera), Kareena Kapoor (Kaa), Madhuri Dixit (Nisha), Anil Kapoor (Baloo) and Jackie Shroff (Shere Khan)..
• Channel Hop: The film was set up at Warner Bros. for an October 2018 release, but fears of comparisons to Disney's live-action The Jungle Book remake, not to mention the previous failure of Pan, resulted in Warner Bros. selling all worldwide rights to Netflix in preparation for a December 2018 release through them.
• Directed by Cast Member: This is Andy Serkis' first movie as director (though due to its release date delays, it wound up launching after his second feature Breathe), and he also plays Baloo.
• Fake Brit: Granted, the film is set in India, so none of the characters are British, but they speak with British accents anyway: the cast includes American actor Rohan Chand as Mowgli, Australian actress Cate Blanchett as Kaa, and Welsh actor Matthew Rhys as actual Englishman John Lockwood.
• Real-Life Relative: Andy Serkis's son Louis Ashbourne Serkis plays Bhoot.
• Release Date Change: Despite being announced prior to the Disney remake, the film has had its release date pushed back twice to avoid Dueling Works with the aforementioned remake, placing the debut in October 2017 and October 2018 respectively, taking the spot that was initially meant for Aquaman, and then the (wide) theatrical release was scrapped altogether in favor of a Netflix release in December 2018.
• Saved from Development Hell \ The Shelf of Movie Languishment: Announced in 2012, completed in 2015, and finally released in 2018. The fact that Disney released another Jungle Book adaptation in the meantime didn't do it any favors.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Before Andy Serkis was officially announced as director, both Alejandro González Iñárritu and Ron Howard were tossed around as possible choices.
  • The film was originally called Jungle Book: Origins and would have been the first of a series of Mowgli movies.
  • Concept art for a wild boar was made, but the design ultimately went unused.
  • Shere Khan would have had a more fantastical striped coat akin to a king cheetah’s patterns.
• Working Title: Jungle Book: Origins.

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