It wasn’t more than few years ago when Alfonso Cuarón brought us a dazzling look at space with the Academy Award-winning Gravity. Now the filmmaker will be taking his talents to the jungle to help out Andy Serkis. New reports are coming in saying that Cuarón has been brought in to consult with Serkis on Jungle Book: Origins. Just a couple of weeks back, Warner Bros. pushed the film’s release back a full year in an effort to perfect the visual effects. But with a big name filmmaker already on board, it still remains to be seen how much of Cuarón’s involvement will have an impact on the film.

More on the story below.

THR says the level of Cuarón’s “consult” involves a lot of vague tasks ranging from assisting in directing to even postproduction work. It’s no surprise that WB turned to the director, considering that the filmmaker was behind the camera on such films as Gravity and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The former won seven Academy Awards while the latter is one of the best installments of the Harry Potter film franchise.

Deadline stresses that some outlets are misinterpreting the news as a takeover. But it isn’t that at all. Cuarón will be there to provide notes.

Serkis is no stranger to visual effects himself. The actor is best known for his motion-capture roles where he played Gollum in Lord Of The Rings trilogy and The Hobbit, as well as his role as Caesar in newly rebooted Planet Of The Apes franchise. He also got a taste of what it was like to be a director, as he was named second unit director of The Hobbit trilogy. Jungle Book: Origins marks Serkis’ debut as a director. The film is supposedly raising the technological bar in visual effects. So having two people with great visual effects background may make the film even better than it already is.

The timing of the film’s new date may also have to do with the recent release of Disney’s reimagining of Rudyard Kipling’s work of the same name. Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book was the number one film at the box office last weekend and a hit amongst critics who said the film set a new standard for CGI.

Written by Callie Kloves, Jungle Book: Origins is said to be a much darker take than Disney’s recent adaptation. The film stars Serkis as Baloo, Christian Bale as Bagheera, Benedict Cumberbatch as Shere Khan, Tom Hollander as Tabaqui, and Cate Blanchett as Kaa. Relative newcomer Rohan Chand will play Mowgli.

Warner Bros. will release the film in theaters on October 19th, 2018.

[Source: THR | Deadline]