The Jungle Book adaptation directed by Andy Serkis for Warner Bros. has just added Benedict Cumberbatch in it's first first voice leading role.

Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch will voice Shere Khan the man-eating tiger.

After a strong vocal performance as Smaug in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit Trilogy, a role he was quite terrifying in, I’m certain he’ll crush this role.

The Warner Bros. The Jungle Book movie is an adaptation from the original Rudyard Kipling novel, where as the Disney re-make that they’ll be going up against, is a remake of their 1967 classic where Idris Elba will voice Shere Khan.

Benedict Cumberbatch will voice Shere Khan, the man-eating tiger who is the villain of the classic tale of a boy named Mowgli who is raised by jungle animals.

Andy Serkis, the motion capture king after pioneering motion capture with such roles as Gollum and Caesar, is making his directorial debut with the movie,
Jungle Book is based on the more-dark-than-you-think short stories written by Kipling and centers on Mowgli, an orphaned boy raised by wolves who befriends Baloo the bear and Bagheera the black panther. The tiger Shere Khan is a lifelong enemy of Mowgli’s, with each vowing to slay the other.

Callie Kloves wrote the script. Her father, Steve Kloves of Harry Potter fame, is producing.

Warners’ Jungle Book is competing against Disney’s adaptation, which is fully cast with Jon Favreau directing. Idris Elba is voicing Shere Kahn in that version.

Cumberbatch, who is up for an Emmy next week for his work on Sherlock, appeared with Serkis in The Hobbit movies. Serkis directed second unit for Peter Jackson’s trilogy adaptation and also appeared as Gollum while Cumberbatch did voice and motion capture work as the dastardly dragon Smaug.

Cumberbatch next portrays code breaker Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, the period drama that will unspool at next month’s Toronto International Film Festival.

Source: THR