According to The Hollywood Reporter, Andy Serkis (War for the Planet of the Apes) has joined the cast of Flarsky, starring Seth Rogen (The Disaster Artist) and Academy Award winning actress Charlize Theron (Atomic Blonde). Also in the cast are O’Shea Jackson, Jr. (Straight Outta Compton) and Ravi Patel (Netflix’s Master of None). Jonathan Levine (50/50) helms from a script by Dan Sterling (TV’s South Park).

The story follows the titular Fred Flarsky (Rogen), a down-and-out political journalist who decides to pursue the unattainable woman he has had a crush on forever – his former babysitter (Theron), all the more unattainable as she is also the Secretary of State in present day, but Flarsky is undeterred. Serkis will play a media mogul who employs Flarsky.

Rogen, Evan Goldberg and James Weaver are producing via their Point Grey banner alongside Theron, Beth Kono and A.J. Dix via Denver & Delilah.

Serkis has been critically acclaimed for his performance capture work, most notably bringing to life the CG-created characters of Gollum in the Lord of the Rings triology, and Caesar in the three installments of the Planet of the Apes reboot and blockbuster franchise. Most recently, Serkis has been working behind the camera. He made his directorial debut with Breathe, which opened last month, starring Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy. He is following up with directing Warner Bros.’ performance capture version of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, currently in post-production. In a recent interview with Variety, Serkis announced the possible full working title of the project as Mowgli: Tales from the Jungle Book.

Flarsky is now shooting in Montreal. Lionsgate has set February 8, 2019 as the U.S. theatrical release date.