Fox's 'Mouse Guard' Adaptation Makes Andy Serkis The Rodent Villain

Andy Serkis is best known for his incredible contributions to cinema by way of impressive motion capture performances in films like War for the Planet of the Apes and Peter Jackson's King Kong. Now he'll be strapping on a leotard with balls all over it yet again for 20th Century Fox's forthcoming adaptation of the New York Times bestselling comic book series Mouse Guard.

For those unfamiliar with Mouse Guard, the Eisner Award-winning comic book series by David Petersen follows a team of mice warriors in a medieval fantasy setting who tirelessly fight to protect their fellow rodents from all manners of threats in their realm. Those threats include real life predators such as foxes, snakes and eagles. But one will come from inside the guard itself.

The Hollywood Reporter has news on the Mouse Guard cast recruiting Andy Serkis to play Midnight, the blacksmith of this medieval rodent world. However, Midnight turns against his own kind for some reason. Serkis is recently coming off playing Ulysses Klaue in Black Panther, and since he hasn't played the villain on the big screen very often, we're very much interesting in seeing him do so with a motion-capture movie like this.

Along with Andy Serkis, the Mouse Guard has also landed a Game of Thrones star to play one of the loyal rodents. Thomas Brodie-Sangster will play Lieam, one of the newest and youngest members of the mouse squad. He'll have to prove his bravery during an integral part of the story.

These are the first two stars who have been lined up for Mouse Guard so far, but there's bound to be plenty more coming on board since there's quite the ensemble of characters in the comic. And with Andy Serkis involved as an actor, surely he'll also be working with the motion capture team and WETA's visual effects department to ensure this is done right.

The Maze Runner director Wes Ball is at the helm of the adaptation, and maybe this will become another franchise for the filmmaker to take charge of at Fox. War for the Planet of the Apes director Matt Reeves is producing along with Ross Richie and Stephen Christy from comic publisher Boom! Studios, and Joe Hartwick Jr.Mouse Guard is slated to start shooting in May, but no release date has been set yet.