Andy Serkis has taken the reigns on Warner Bros.' live action rendition of The Jungle Book. He will be replacing Alejandro González Iñárritu, who dropped out of the project due to scheduling conflicts. Ron Howard was also interested in directing, but departed as well.

The story centers on Mowgli, an orphaned boy who is raised by wolfs. He becomes friends with Baloo the bear and Bagheera the black panther. He also has to face off against the man-eating tiger Shere Khan. It is based on a group of short stories written by Rudyard Kipling.

Warner Bros. is now in a race with Disney to bring the live-action version to the big screen. Disney's take currently has Jon Favreau directing and Idris Elba voicing Shere Khan.

Andy Serkis is best known for playing the CG character Gollum in The Lord of the Rings films and portrayed Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. He served as a second unit director on the new The Hobbit trilogy. He will be directing from a script by Callie Kloves. Steve Kloves will be producing.

No production schedule has been released.