Cate Blanchett’s reptilian new film role

MOTION capture expert Andy Serkis says that Cate Blanchett is “phenomenal” in his coming version of The Jungle Book. The Aussie two-time Oscar-winner plays the snake Kaa in the version being directed by Serkis, alongside fellow Oscar-winner Christian Bale as panther Bagheera, and Oscar nominee Benedict Cumberbatch as the villainous tiger Shere Khan.

Serkis was forced to delay the release of his version of the beloved tale back to 2018 after Jon Favreau’s Jungle Book came out last year and took more than $1 billion at the box office.

Serkis, most famous for his playing Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, is still working on the film using his state of the art technology and this month had his LOTR co-star Blanchett slithering around on the floor in a motion capture suit.

“I was working with her a couple of weeks ago,” Serkis said. “You should see her — and one day you will. You will see some amazing footage of her doing just that and it’s phenomenal.”

Serkis, the world’s premiere motion capture expert thanks to his work as Gollum, King Kong and Caesar the chimp in the Planet Of the Apes trilogy, says that it’s now easy to attract A-list talent to what was once seen as a gimmick, with actors excited by the possibilities it presents.

“There is a sense of actors wanting this,” he said. “Philosophically it offers you so much. Your career can go on and you can keep expanding and changing into different things and you can play anything. When you have had a long career like Cate or Benedict Cumberbatch or Christian Bale, to then have the ability to go ‘wow, there is this whole other world where I can play all these different things’.

“You can play a panther or tiger and fully embody it — not just stand in a booth and do a voice, but to really become it and own it. It is a phenomenal 21st Century tool for an actor.”

Serkis will play chimpanzee Caesar for a third time in War For the Planet Of the Apes, which opens on July 27.