Rings star Andy Serkis on filming another swashbuckling band of adventurers

Breathe is the story of Robin and Diana Cavendish and their battle for independence outside the hospital system, and will star Andy Serkis
Personal connection: Andy Serkis with his wife Lorraine Ashbourne
Dave Benett

Lord of the Rings star Andy Serkis said he had no hesitation in going so close to home for his next film which tells the story of his business partner’s family.

Breathe is the story of Robin and Diana Cavendish — whose son Jonathan will produce the film — and their battle for independence outside the hospital system after Robin was left almost totally crippled by polio in the Fifties.

The couple fled hospital and moved to a rundown country house in Oxfordshire where they teamed up with an engineer to create a system of machinery to allow Robin to regain some independence.

Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy will play the Cavendishes when filming starts next month. Serkis, who rose to fame as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and is directing, said: “It evolves into an adventure and a caper story with a lot of humour.” He has a personal connection too, as his sister has multiple sclerosis.

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Serkis, 52, said: “I look at her now and see how difficult it is for disabled people to get around now and think how back then they were kept out of view and pitied.”

Jonathan Cavendish, who runs The Imaginarium Studios production firm with Serkis, said he wanted to capture the “swashbuckling band of eccentrics” he knew in his childhood.

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