Andy Serkis is making an animated Animal Farm adaptation!

On the back of his directorial debut with Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Andy Serkis (best known for playing Gollum in The Lord of the Rings movies) has already confirmed his next project: an animated adaptation of George Orwell’s 1945 allegorical novel Animal Farm.

Animal Farm is not short on adaptations. So far, there’s been a radio version, a big screen adaptation in 1954, and a TV movie in 1999 starring Patrick Stewart. Serkis has wanted to make his own version of the classic novel for over a decade. “We’re keeping it fable-istic and aimed at a family audience,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “We are not going to handle the politics in a heavy-handed fashion. It is going to be emotionally centered in a way that I don’t think has been seen before. The point of view that we take will be slightly different to how it is normally portrayed and the characters, We are examining this in a new light.”

Andy Serkis’ adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm has been a long time coming

Netflix acquired the rights to stream Serkis’ adaptation in 2018, with a script written by The Muppets‘ Nicholas Stoller. However, everything about the adaptation went quiet…until now, with Deadline reporting that it’s officially back on! “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 in a statement. “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.”

Serkis has been involved with a lot of animal-themed projects throughout this career, from playing Baloo in Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle to Caesar in the Planet of the Apes movies to Matthew the Raven in Audible’s adaptation of The Sandman comics. Animal Farm should be a cinch for him.

Animal Farm doesn’t have a release date yet, but at least we know it’s moving forward. Animation usually takes a bit longer than live-action, so we can assume a finished product is probably a few years away. We’ve waited for a decade, what’s a little longer?

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