Andy Serkis Steps Up To Open WB's "Jungle Book"

Best known for his motion capture work for films actor Andy Serkis is set to direct a new live-action adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's classic India-set 1894 short story collection  "The Jungle Book" at  Warner Bros--this after the departure of Alejandro González Iñárritu due to scheduling conflicts.

It is unknown if Serkis will act in the movie as well at this point.

Heat Vision reports that talks with Ron Howard didn't get very far before he turned it down.

The pic will be a live action version of the story about an orphaned boy raised by wolves and other animals, which try to protect him from the ferocious tiger Shere-Khan. The tone will be a bit darker than previous film adaptations of the work

The most well known of which are the 1967 animated classic and the Stephen Sommers directed 1994 live-action live-action version starring Jason Scott Lee, Lena Headey and Cary Elwes.

Callie Kloves wrote the adapted script and Steve Kloves will produce with Serkis.

Since the property is in the public domain Disney is developing it's own film that "Iron Man" director Jon Favreau is in talks to helm using a Justin Marks script.