Steve Pond's Blog, page 119
June 15, 2025
Bill Murray Says It’s Easy to Tell Wes Anderson Yes: ‘I’m Not Going to be Disappointed’
To date, Bill Murray has starred in 10 of Wes Anderson’s 12 films. He plays God in the latest, “The Phoenician Scheme,” which was released May 30 and also stars Benicio del Toro, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks and Benedict Cumberbatch. Telling the director yes is an easy decision, Murray explained in an interview with The Times published Saturday.
“At this point I just say, ‘What time? Where are we going?’ Because from his first script I knew exactly what he wanted to do,” the actor said. “I’m not going to be disappointed in what we make.”
Murry is currently on tour with cellist Jan Vogler, whom he met on a flight.
“We met boarding a plane in Berlin and I said, ‘Are you going to fit that thing [his cello] in the overhead?’ And he looked at me like I was mentally handicapped and said, ‘It has its own zeet,” the actor said. “Not only does it have its own zeet, it has a zeet in first class, and it has the window zeet in first class.’”
The pair had dinner in Brooklyn and became friends. The duo are joined by Vogler’s wife, violinist Mira Wang, as well as by pianist Vanessa Perez on their tour. The show features Murray “bounding around the stage reading Walt Whitman and singing ‘I Feel Pretty’ from ‘West Side Story’.”
“The audience are expecting maybe it’s going to be funny because I’m in it,” Murray said. “Or maybe it’s going to be grim because there are three communists.”
The show dates back to 2017, when the foursome performed together in Australia, Iceland, Germany and the US.
Read the interview with Bill Murray at The Times.
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What We Know About Suspected Minnesota Shooter Vance Boelter
The suspect in the Saturday shooting of Minnesota State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark in their home (state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvonne were also shot at their own residence but are expected to recover) has been identified as 57-year-old Vance Luther Boelter. A full understanding of who Boelter is and what motivated him is still being investigated, but this is what is known now.
Vance Boelter’s career history variesBoelter has worked in retail, for food companies and as a pastor, the Washington Post reported Sunday. The outlet also noted he rotated between his home with his wife outside the Twin Cities and a rental home in Minneapolis with roommates.
One roommate, David Carlson, told the Post Boelter’s most recent job was for an organization that handles eye donations.
Boelter also once preached at LaBorne Matadi, a church in the Congo.
Boelter left in the middle of the nightCarlson also said he attempted to speak to Boelter Friday night, but the latter said he was tired. When Carlson woke up, he had texts from Boelter that said he was “going to be gone for a while” and “may be dead shortly.” He called the police.
His wife was involved in a traffic stopBoelter’s wife, Jennifer Lynee Boelter, was in a car with “several other relatives” when they were stopped by police, Fox 9 reported Sunday.
“My office assisted law enforcement from Hennepin County on a stop near a convenience store in the city of Onamia. Our role on this stop was perimeter. We did not search or question any of the occupants. I was told by my staff who responded that the shooting suspect’s wife was in the car along with several other relatives,” Kyle Burton, Mille Lacs County Sheriff, told FOX 9.
Authorities found passports and cash in the car.
Boelter voted for TrumpThe Post also noted Boelter voted for Donald Trump in the most recent election and was opposed to abortion. A manifesto reportedly penned by Boelter indicated “there clearly was some throughline [to] abortion,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Sunday morning.
“Clearly, this is politically motivated. Our delegation in Minnesota, from the most conservative Republican to the most liberal Democrat, we all joined together, Senator Emmer and I, and others, and said we condemn this political violence,” Klobuchar explained on “Meet the Press. “It was politically motivated, and there clearly was some throughline [to] abortion because of the groups that were on the list.”
The post What We Know About Suspected Minnesota Shooter Vance Boelter appeared first on TheWrap.
Sparse Attendance, Confusion and Disorganization: Dismal Scenes From Trump’s Military Parade
Donald Trump threw a military parade in honor of the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary on Saturday, June 14 (a date that happens to be the president’s birthday) to the tune of $25 to $45 million. But unfortunately for Trump, photos and videos from the big day show sparse attendance and a lack of organization from top to bottom.
I just got back from the Trump parade and I have to say it was legitimately the worst executed mass attendance event I’ve ever seen
— Doug Landry (@dougblandry) June 15, 2025
One overarching thought: how do you spend $80 million and fumble the basics?
Many more thoughts –
50 Thirteen founder Doug Landry shared a series of tweets that documented many issues with the parade Saturday. Landry described the event as “legitimately the worst executed mass attendance event I’ve ever seen” before sharing photos of a sparsely populated Washington Mall, the single checkpoint to which approximately 15,000 people were sent, maps that failed to offer clear direction, dozens of empty checkpoints, and empty VIP bleachers.
Scenes from the National Mall right now:
— Phil Lewis (@phillewis.bsky.social) 2025-06-14T23:35:40.683Z
Those scenes were replicated by HuffPost deputy editor Phil Lewis, who shared his own photos on BlueSky.
Donald Trump does NOT want you to share this footage of his pathetically tiny birthday parade crowd.
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen.bsky.social) 2025-06-14T22:28:40.682Z
YouTube Brian Tyler Cohen slammed the event on the same platform.
“Donald Trump does NOT want you to share this footage of his pathetically tiny birthday parade crowd,” he captioned a video of attendees.
Trump shared a portion of his speech from the event on Truth Social, as well as an uncharacteristically brief summation of the day: “What a GREAT Parade. THANK YOU, ARMY!”
The parade prompted thousands of “No Kings” rallies and protests held on the same day across the United States.
The post Sparse Attendance, Confusion and Disorganization: Dismal Scenes From Trump’s Military Parade appeared first on TheWrap.
‘Masters of the Universe’: Nicholas Galitzine Has the Power in First Look at He-Man | Photo
Production on the new “Masters of the Universe” movie has wrapped, and to mark the occasion, star Nicholas Galitzine (“The Idea of You”) offered up a first look at him in costume as He-Man, the most powerful man in the universe, who must battle the evil Skeletor in this adaptation of the Mattel toy franchise.
Travis Knight, the CEO of Laika and director of the animated “Kubo and the Two Strings” and 2018’s “Transformers” spinoff “Bumblebee,” directed the new “Masters of the Universe” movie from a screenplay by Chris Butler.
“Well, that’s a wrap on ‘Masters of the Universe.’ It has been an honour shouldering the responsibility of playing Adam and He Man,” Galitzine posted on Instagram. “It’s been the role of a lifetime and I put everything into it. There’s not much I can show you, but I am so proud of the movie we’ve made. Thanks to our amazing cast and crew for all your hard work.”
Jared Leto fills the Skeletor role in the movie, while the rest of the cast includes Camila Mendes (“Teela”), Morena Baccarin (“The Sorceress”), Alison Brie (“Evil-Lyn”), Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson (“Malcolm/Fisto”), Idris Elba (“Duncan/Man-at-Arms”), Sam C. Wilson (“Trap Jaw”), Hafthor Bjornsson (“Goat Man”), Kojo Attah (“Tri-Klops”), James Purefoy (“King Randor”) and Charlotte Riley (“Queen Marlena”).
“Masters of the Universe” will be released exclusively in theaters worldwide on June 5, 2026 before it streams on Prime Video and is produced by Escape Artists and Mattel Films.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Nicholas Galitzine (@nicholasgalitzine)
Mattel introduced the world to He-Man in 1982 with the launch of a toy line (dubbed Masters of the Universe) and the debut of the animated series “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” the following year. The show was about Prince Adam of Eternia, a man who looked just like He-Man, but was missing the hero’s tanned skin.
The show ended two seasons and 130 episodes later, but the story of He-Man lived on. In 1985, the animated movie “The Secret of the Sword” introduced the hero’s sister, She-Ra, who also later ended up with her own series, “She-Ra: Princess of Power.”
By 1987, both series had ended and the most famous iteration, the live-action film “Masters of the Universe,” was released. Dolph Lundgren filled the role of He-Man and Frank Langella played Skeletor in the Cannon Films release.
Mattel reintroduced audiences to He-Man three years later with the release of the series “The New Adventures of He-Man.” The series was rebooted again in 2002, 2018 and 2021, as was “She-Ra and the Princesses of Power” on Netflix.
“Masters of the Universe” is one of several bets on ’80s IP for Amazon MGM Studios, which also includes a “Voltron” movie and a new “Highlander” film starring Henry Cavill.
The post ‘Masters of the Universe’: Nicholas Galitzine Has the Power in First Look at He-Man | Photo appeared first on TheWrap.
L.A. ‘No Kings’ Protests Draw 30,000 to Downtown, 500 Arrests Reported in SoCal Clashes
The tens of thousands of “No Kings” protesters who hit the streets across the nation this weekend were vibrant and vocal but largely peaceful, with perhaps the biggest gathering drawing an estimated 30,000 people to downtown Los Angeles. Authorities reported around 500 arrests in Southern California as some evening demonstrations erupted into clashes involving tear gas and rubber bullets.
Across the U.S., an estimated 2,000 organized protests of Donald Trump’s immigration policies took place, according to media reports, even as the president presided over a massive military parade to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American armed forces on Saturday, which also happened to be his 79th birthday.
SoCal marches fanned out in Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Thousand Oaks, South Bay and points between. In Torrance, where a 9-year-old elementary school student and his father were detained and deported to Honduras last month, thousands of protesters lined Torrance Boulevard for roughly a mile, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“When I saw that fourth-grade boy taken from his family, it gave me chills thinking of how scared he was,” retired school librarian Laurie Pisano told the paper. “Democracy is important, and that’s not what’s happening.”
Much smaller gatherings of pro-Trump counter-protesters were also present, like in Republican-leaning Pasadena and Huntington Beach, where groups held signs in support of the president’s agenda to carry out mass deportations. The Times reported that one group held “Make America Great Again” and “Support Your Local ICE Raid” placards that included an epithet to describe undocumented immigrants.
The Trump administration has justified its immigration raids as a safety issue, and a fulfillment of promises from the president’s 2024 campaign.
A crowd of a few hundred protesters surrounded a federal building Saturday afternoon in downtown Los Angeles, where a line of armed Marines – called in by Trump over the protests of Gov. Gavin Newsom – guarded the entrance. The Los Angeles Police Department declared dispersal orders around 4 p.m., saying people were “throwing rocks, bricks, bottles and other objects.”
Police on horseback charged the crowd sometime later, shooting rubber bullets, firing tear-gas canisters and waving batons, the Times reported. The area was cleared in a matter of minutes.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass pleaded with protesters to remain peaceful.
“Please, please, do not give the administration an excuse to intervene,” she said, adding that the city’s 8 p.m. curfew would remain in place through Saturday. “Don’t even try,” she added.
A federal judge this week said the White House had to hand National Guard control back to Gov. Gavin Newsom. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals paused a lower court’s order this week for Trump to hand control of the National Guard back to Newsom.
A hearing on the order is scheduled for Tuesday.
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Amy Klobuchar Says ‘Politically Motivated’ Minnesota Shootings Have a ‘Throughline to Abortion’ | Video
The Minnesota shootings that left State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark dead and Sen. John A. Hoffman and his wife Yvonne injured were “politically motivated” and “there clearly was some throughline [to] abortion,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar said on “Meet the Press” Sunday.
Klobuchar described the shooter as “a murderous, murderous man” and said that a manifesto that included lists of organizations he might target.
“Clearly, this is politically motivated. Our delegation in Minnesota, from the most conservative Republican to the most liberal Democrat, we all joined together, Senator Emmer and I, and others, and said we condemn this political violence. It was politically motivated, and there clearly was some throughline [to] abortion because of the groups that were on the list, and other things that I’ve heard were in this manifesto. So that was one of his motivations,” she explained.
But authorities are also investigating other aspects of the shooting, she added.
“And I think for us right now, allowing law enforcement to do their jobs instead of speculating on every angle of where he might have gone,” Klobuchar continued. “They obviously have information we don’t have, and so what we’ve been trying to do as political leaders is make really clear we will have plenty of time to analyze what happened here, but right now it is trying to report any sighting of this person, and to be very careful, and to listen to what law enforcement says.”
The Senator also emphasized that though Hoffman is stable, he and his wife endured “multiple, multiple gun wounds.”
Hortman, who was also a mother to two children, was “loved by Democrats and Republicans,” Klobuchar added.
“We started out together in politics, moms with young kids. And somehow she was able to balance getting to know every door knock, every house in her district while raising two children. Girl Scout leader. She taught Sunday School. And maybe all that juggling made it easier for her as she worked her way up in the legislature and became this extraordinary Speaker of the House, ushering in everything from preschool lunch to working with the governor and other leaders to do some landmark legislation on paid family leave,” she explained.
“That’s Melissa Hortman, my friend. And when you think about political violence and the statistics of political violence, you’ve got to realize the people who are behind it, and a true public servant that we lost.”
Watch the interview with Sen. Klobuchar in the video above.
The post Amy Klobuchar Says ‘Politically Motivated’ Minnesota Shootings Have a ‘Throughline to Abortion’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
7 Best Anime Movies Streaming on Netflix Right Now
As Netflix cranks it up a notch with its growing number of anime films, we’re here to tell you what’s the best from the bunch.
Netflix has continued to delve deeper and deeper into Japanese animation by licensing several major titles and crafting its own original works. It’s the very reason why the streamer has become a force in the entertainment sector, as it now boasts a slate that satisfies the everyday anime lover.
And because of that, TheWrap decided to outline the seven best titles Netflix has in its library right now. Here are the titles we think you should watch.
“Mary and the Witch’s Flower”
“Mary and the Witch’s Flower” (GKids)If you’re a fan of animator and director Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s work, which includes mega anime film hits “Ponyo,” “The Boy and the Heron,” “Howl’s Moving Castle,” and more, then “Mary and the Witch’s Flower” will be an absolutely fantastical treat. After following a strange cat into a mysterious forest where she finds a broomstick and a “Fly-by-Night” flower, the broom takes a young girl named Mary to a school of magic that’s nestled in the clouds. But the institution isn’t all glitz and glam; there are dark things happening there that could put Mary’s life in danger.
“Suzame” (2022)
“Suzume” (Crunchyroll)Makoto Shinkai’s hit adventurous drama received wide acclaim when it dropped in 2022. Between its gorgeous visuals, detailed settings, and heartwarming story, there are so many things to love about this film. The movie is centered on the teen girl named Suzume, who’s able to see supernatural beings, and sets out on a mission to save her country after a wave of an insidious force takes over the skies and onto the land.
“Grave of the Fireflies” (1988)
“Grave of the Fireflies” (GKids)Don’t let the smiles in the photo fool you, this war drama is going to totally tear your heart to shreds. The Isao Takahata-directed film is a semi-autobiographical story that’s based on the true story of Akiyuki Nosaka and his own experiences during the tail-end of World War II in Kobe, Japan. The anime adaptation of Nosaka’s short story follows the tragic journey of two siblings who rely on one another to survive through the perils of the way.
“Child of Kamiari Month” (2021)
“Child of Kamiari Month” (Linden Films)In Takana Shirai, Toshinari Shinohe’s Kanna was born as a descendant of gods, and a year after losing her mother, she learns that she must head out on the trail to a sacred land called Izumo, where for an annual gathering of gods.
“Blue Giant” (2023)
“Blue Giant” (Toho Animation)“Blue Giant” is like an anime film version of “Whiplash,” but the main character plays the saxophone and there’s no emotionally and verbally abusive instructor. However, it’s just as exciting to watch Dai Miyamoto and his passion to become the best saxophone player of his time. And the story jumps off after Dai attends a live jazz performance where his unknown love for the genre is sparked. But with no formal education in the craft and his inability to read sheet music, his desire to be the absolute best will be tested.
“5 Centimeters per Second” (2007)
“5 Centimeters per Second” (CoMix Wave Films)Of course, we had to throw in a good romantic film for the lovers. Makota Shinkai’s “5 Centimeters per Second” is about how well the relationship between two close friends, Tono Takaki and Shinohara Akari, will last after Akari moves to another city. While they remain in contact, the biggest wedge between them ends up being their reluctance to share their true feelings for each other.
“A Whisker Away” (2020)
“A Whisker Away” (Netflix)Would you be willing to turn yourself into a cat to grab your crush’s attention? No? OK, well, it’s definitely fun watching young student Miyo Sasaki try her luck at it in “A Whisker Away.” She’s a strange kid who lives in an even stranger world where humans and animals can swap bodies. To gain the attention of her love interest, Kento Hinode, she transforms herself into a cat. However, her real life and the nine new ones she’s acquired start to blur, leaving her in a furry situation she’ll struggle to get out of.
The post 7 Best Anime Movies Streaming on Netflix Right Now appeared first on TheWrap.
June 14, 2025
Mark Ruffalo, Ellen Pompeo, Kerry Washington and More Support ‘No Kings’ Protests
Democracy is “in real trouble,” Mark Ruffalo told MSNBC’s Antonio Hylton while attending the “No Kings” rally in New York City Saturday. His words were echoed by Ellen Pompeo, Kerry Washington, Jimmy Kimmel, and many more notable people and celebrities who spoke out in support of the nationwide protests.
“We see a president who has made himself a king and a dictator,” Ruffalo continued. “And we don’t see an opposition that’s powerful enough to stand up against the trampling of our rights, and trampling the Constitution that’s happening every single day with executive orders. With the refusal to obey court orders. Kidnapping of immigrants, people who are here illegally, people whose children are being taken from them. We’re disgusted and we’re scared. And we know that the only way that — to fight this now is for the people, is to come together.”
The actor was also photographed alongside Susan Sarandon.
Pompeo took a more aggressive approach. While speaking to Katie Couric at Tribeca Festival Saturday, she commented, “The simplest answer is, we need more women in power and more women in leadership. These guys are all so angry. What is happening? I don’t know, have a sandwich, smoke a joint, chill the f–k out. What is wrong? They all want to fight and bomb each other.”
Women “[have] this emotional intelligence” she added, and “we’re dealing with a lot of low emotional intelligence and ego.” Pomepo also said, “I can’t say all men, obviously. I’m sorry guys, I love you.”
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Kerry Washington (@kerrywashington)
Washington shared a series of photos of women she met while protesting. “#NoKings, just some QUEENS 
I found marching, speaking up, and fighting for Democracy,” she captioned the image carousel.
Gracie Abrams and her mom at an anti-ICE protest in new photo. pic.twitter.com/Nj5DtV47SP
— Pop Base (@PopBase) June 14, 2025
Singer Gracie Abrams and her mother joined the rally in New York Saturday. Pop Base shared a photo of the pair carrying a sign that reads, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor” — the quote is attributed to Desmond Tutu.
Kimmel attended a rally in San Francisco with his parents. “A huge, inspiring and yes – peaceful – turnout in the South Bay. I met many people who love this country and still believe it to be a force for good,” he wrote on Instagram. “I am grateful to see so many Americans take action to stand up for our friends and neighbors, most of all, my parents. I know how fortunate I am to have been born into a family that taught me to care about others and that the most important words ever spoken are ‘Love one another.’ It really is as simple as that.”
Singer Moby also shared a video of himself at a protest. “No kings. We need to do everything we can to protect democracy: protest, donate, post, run for office, vote, organize. Also now is absolutely not the time for any in-fighting,” he captioned the footage.
Several stars, including Ayo Edebiri, Gina Rodriguez-LoCicero, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Kathy Griffin, and Glenn Close shared photos and videos from protests in their Instagram Stories.
Large crowds gathered Saturday to protest the Trump administration’s detainment and deportation of immigrants in the United States, as well as the president’s $45 million military parade on what happens to be his 79th birthday.
Trump’s own military parade is set to begin at 6:30 p.m. The parade route will begin at the Pentagon and end at the White House.
The post Mark Ruffalo, Ellen Pompeo, Kerry Washington and More Support ‘No Kings’ Protests appeared first on TheWrap.
Erin Moriarty Announces Graves’ Disease Diagnosis: ‘Go Get Checked’
Erin Moriarty has been diagnosed with Graves’ disease, the actress announced on Instagram Friday. Moriarty shared a text message in which she detailed her symptoms and a series of selfies along with a caption in which she encouraged her followers to “go get checked” if they experience similar symptoms.
“Autoimmune disease manifests differently in everybody/every body. Your experience will be different from mine. My experience will be different from yours. Perhaps greatly, perhaps minutely,” Moriartiy wrote.
Graves’ disease is an autoimmune disorder that impacts the thyroid.
“One thing I can say: If I hadn’t chalked it all up to stress and fatigue, I would’ve caught this sooner. A month ago, I was diagnosed with Graves’ disease. Within 24 hours of beginning treatment, I felt the light coming back on. It’s been increasing in strength ever since. If yours is dimming, even slightly, go get checked. Don’t ‘suck it up’ and transcend suffering; you deserve to be comfy. S–t’s hard enough as is.”
Moriarty has starred on “The Boys” since 2019, and the final season of the series is set to air next year.
The post Erin Moriarty Announces Graves’ Disease Diagnosis: ‘Go Get Checked’ appeared first on TheWrap.
Why Andy Serkis Ditched Performance Capture for His Animated ‘Animal Farm’ Adaptation
Andy Serkis remembered the first time he read George Orwell’s “Animal Farm.”
It was around the same time that he first read J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” (“I can’t remember which one I’d read first,” he admits). He was on the bus to school and enchanted by the tale of animals and their fall into fascism. The original novel, published in 1945, dramatized the events of the Russian Revolution and the rise of Stalinism, but even removed from the historical context, Serkis was knocked out. “I was really hit by the book in a major way,” the actor and filmmaker told TheWrap at Annecy, where his animated adaptation made its premiere. “And it stayed with me.”
Later on he saw a theatrical production at the National Theater in London, “bizarrely with with humans using crutches and masks.” “I just found it so entrancing and like, Wow, there’s a way of visually bringing the story to life, other than what I’ve conjured up in my head from the book,” Serkis said. Years later, when Serkis was making “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” his mind returned to “Animal Farm.” “I just thought that there hasn’t been a recent retelling of this for a new generation,” Serkis said.
Initially, he thought about doing it through performance capture, a medium that Serkis, perhaps better than any other actor, knew well. As they worked on the script (and wanting the movie to be as accessible as possible), he began to second-guess this approach. “By definition, doing it as a live-action movie would have made it bleaker from the outset, darker and the character designs that we were working on in the way that we were doing it was too heavy handed,” Serkis said. Instead, he pivoted to a completely animated feature, with zero performance capture, just like the 1954 adaptation of the book, which was co-produced by the CIA (seriously, look it up).
“What the animated world gives you, which I’ve realized, is an innocence and a way of storytelling which allows the audience to connect and fill in the dots in a much more profound way,” Serkis explained. “You can still have characters that are as meaningful and emotionally engaging, but you’re freed of reality to certain extent. And therefore you can retain innocence.”
Serkis’ version of the story, which he directed and lends a voice to, just had its premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, introduces a new character, a young pig named Lucky (voiced by Gaten Matarazzo). Serkis said that he was influenced by “A Bronx Tale” in fashioning his new version of “Animal Farm.” “I kind of fell upon putting the young audience members into the eyes of this corruptible, innocent young piglet who has to then make life choices between two different strong ideologies, and go plumbing for the wrong one, and then having to make amends after the scales fall from his eyes and he realizes he’s made the wrong decision,” Serkis said.
The other big decision he had to make was for the look of the film. He finally decided on a “painterly” style that took cues from early Disney animated features. “That painterly style felt to me like it was a great way of bringing all those elements together,” he said.
And you can feel the push-and-pull throughout “Animal Farm,” particularly between its darker themes and the brighter, more commercial visuals. Serkis said that was also a struggle, to make sure that tonally and visually, there was a unifying conceit. Serkis said that when he would talk to various studios early on, they would tell him, “No, it’s too all too message-y, too political, too spinach-y.” The bottom line was that they thought it was going to be boring.
“What Orwell had written was not a boring book,” Serkis said. Sure, he said, the original novel was an “allegory at the time of totalitarian Russia,” but he knew he could make a version that reflected concerns of contemporary society. “We live in a difficult world, but every generation lives in a difficult world for different reasons, and we always make the same mistakes,” Serkis said. His goal was to “tell that in an innocent and comedic and funny and heartwarming way, but most importantly, where you do deeply care about the characters and what happens to them.”
Serkis set his “Animal Farm” in a quasi-futuristic world, where a monolithic, technologically advanced corporate structure is looking to prey on the farm. (One appearance of a Cybertruck-style vehicle elicited howls of laughter from the premiere audience.) He said that the book is “eternally relevant” and that, in setting in a nebulous futuristic realm, it would help the film to resonate in the same way, where you could see it in 20 years and get just as much out of it.
“There’s nothing in our film which is specifically drawing comparison with any political party, regime or person, because we started making this 14 years ago,” Serkis said. When he started working on the script with Nicholas Stoller around eight years ago, “the political systems that are in place now and the things that are happening in the world are different.” Instead, Serkis relied on the characters to ground the story and provide consistency. “That was the way in,” Serkis said.
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