Netflix acquires rights for George Orwell's Animal Farm, adaptation to be directed by Andy Serkis

Los Angeles: Streaming giant Netflix has bought the film rights of George Orwell's 1945 novel Animal Farm and is developing the project with actor-director Andy Serkis.

The announcement comes days after the streaming giant acquired Serkis' adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, titled Mowgli, from Warner Bros.The new project will be helmed by Serkis, who had expressed interest in developing it in 2012, according to The Hollywood Reporter.The adaptation will be produced by the actor's The Imaginarium studio and director Matt Reeves' production company 6th & Idaho.The duo previously worked together on Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes, which were directed by Reeves and featured Serkis in his performance capture role as Caesar.Orwell's novella was informed by the Russian revolution of 1917 and is an allegory for Stalinist regime of the Soviet Union in which animals rebel against the humans who own their farm and adopt the rule of the utopian environment of equality for all. However, a pig named Napoleon twists the original intent, slowly eliminating his rivals and enacts seven commandments — the basic of which declares that “all animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”Rafi Crohn, Adam Kassan and Jonathan Cavendish will also serve as the producers on the project.(With inputs from Press Trust of India)