Original author: jyotsna popuri

We live in a digital world with a false sense of security. While watching Blade Runner 2049 I smiled during a scene near the end where Deckard says to K, “What Have You Done?!?!?” I expect that this false sense of security will still exist in 2049 if humans manage to still be around.

The first big piece of security news this weekend was ‘All wifi networks’ are vulnerable to hacking, security expert discovers. It only a Severe flaw in WPA2 protocol leaves Wi-Fi traffic open to eavesdropping, but, well, that’s most Wi-Fi networks. If you want the real details, the website Key Reinstallation Attacks: Breaking WPA2 by forcing nonce reuse goes into depth about KRACK Attacks. And yes, KRACK is already up on Wikipedia.

Here’s the summary, which is mildly disconcerting (that’s sarcasm if you missed it …):

The weaknesses are in the Wi-Fi standard itself, and not in individual products or implementations. Therefore, any correct implementation of WPA2 is likely affected. To prevent the attack, users must update affected products as soon as security updates become available. Note that if your device supports Wi-Fi, it is most likely affected. During our initial research, we discovered ourselves that Android, Linux, Apple, Windows, OpenBSD, MediaTek, Linksys, and others, are all affected by some variant of the attacks. For more information about specific products, consult the database of CERT/CC, or contact your vendor.

I was cruising along in my naive security bliss this morning when I saw the article Millions of high-security crypto keys crippled by newly discovered flaw. It turns out that a key RSA library that is widely used has a deep flaw in it and has been being used to generate weak keys since 2012.

A crippling flaw in a widely used code library has fatally undermined the security of millions of encryption keys used in some of the highest-stakes settings, including national identity cards, software- and application-signing, and trusted platform modules protecting government and corporate computers.

The weakness allows attackers to calculate the private portion of any vulnerable key using nothing more than the corresponding public portion. Hackers can then use the private key to impersonate key owners, decrypt sensitive data, sneak malicious code into digitally signed software, and bypass protections that prevent accessing or tampering with stolen PCs. The five-year-old flaw is also troubling because it’s located in code that complies with two internationally recognized security certification standards that are binding on many governments, contractors, and companies around the world. The code library was developed by German chipmaker Infineon and has been generating weak keys since 2012 at the latest.

I’m sure there will be a lot more written about each of these flaws in the next few days. I expect every security vendor is hard at work this morning figuring out what to patch, how to do it, what to tell their customers, and how to get all the patches out in the world as fast as possible.

The constraint, of course, will be on the user side. A large number of customers of the flawed products won’t update their side of things very quickly. And many more bad guys now have a very clear roadmap for another attack vector with high vulnerability.

Be safe out there. Well, at least realize that whatever you generate digitally isn’t as safe and secure as you might think it is.

Also published on Medium.

Previous PostMy Partners Blogging In 2017

Original author: Brad Feld

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Shoppers wait to buy the new OnePlus 5 smartphone at a OnePlus pop-up store. Sean Gallup/Getty

Chinese phone manufacturer OnePlus said that it will review how it collects data from its users in a post on its official forum (which we fist saw reported by The Verge).

Numerous complaints surfaced after a post that detailed how OnePlus was amassing data from its users prompted the company to change the way it approaches the issue.

OnePlus will tweak its terms of service at the end of the month, and prompt users to opt-out of the data-collecting program if they wish to.

Last week, independent software engineer Chris Moore found that OnePlus had been tracking a lot of information from his personal phone, and wrote a post on his blog to explain further.

As Moore detailed, OnePlus had been gathering data such as his phone's IMEI, serial number, cellular number, MAC address, mobile network name, IMSI prefix, and wireless network ESSID and BSSID, and more.

In his post on OnePlus' forum, cofounder Carl Pei said that the information was used to do things such as optimise the custom Oxygen OS operating system and offer better after-sale support, and noted that nothing was shared outside the firm.

However, with the new system, the setup process that appears when a customer powers up a OnePlus product will now "clearly indicate that the program collects usage analytics," as per Pei's words, so to avoid any misunderstandings.

OnePlus will also stop gathering phone numbers, MAC addresses, and WiFi information altogether.

Original author: Edoardo Maggio

It looks like Facebook is considering barging in on LinkedIn's turf.

Facebook is currently trialling a CV feature, according to screenshots posted on social media — a move that would put it in direct competition with professional social network LinkedIn.

Matt Navarra, director of social media for The Next Web, has shared screenshots of the resume feature sent to him by web developer Jane Manchun Wong, who saw it appear on her Facebook profile.

The feature lets users list their professional experience and education, as well as their contact details, an image, and other information — just like Microsoft-owned LinkedIn does.

Of course, it's already possible for people to list their job history and education on Facebook. But do you really want prospective employers to see your private Facebook profile? Instead, the new feature appears to combine all the relevant information into a single, professional-looking package — away from personal photos, status updates, and other Facebook posts people might not wish to share with recruiters and the wider world.

It's not clear how many people currently have access to the resume feature, or what Facebook's ultimate intentions are here. The social network often tests features on a small number of users before rolling them out more widely (or not), and a spokesperson did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for more information.

But just the fact that Facebook is experimenting with this is further evidence of how the Californian firm is increasingly trying to transcend its roots as a simple social network and move into the professional sector. In 2016, it launches Facebook At Work — now called Workplace — a modified version of Facebook designed for teams in the office to use.

Given Facebook's reputation for trying to crush potential rivals, that ought to make LinkedIn nervous.

Matt Navarra/Jane Manchun Wong/Twitter

Original author: Rob Price

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Leon Neal/Getty Images

Uber has decided not to push ahead with plans to expand into at least nine towns and cities across the UK, according to a report in The Sunday Times.

The taxi-app has reportedly withdrawn applications for operating licences in Oxford, Hull, Bournemouth, Gateshead, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, and Sandwell in the West Midlands.

The decision was reportedly made after Uber was asked a series of questions about the way it operates by the Local Government Association.

Uber insists that it is simply an "agent" with an app that connects passengers with drivers that work for themselves but the questions challenge this assertion.

The Sunday Times cited the following question: "If Uber has no involvement in the contract between the customer and the driver of the vehicle, who accepts the booking? If Uber accepts the booking, how does it have no involvement in the contract between the customer and the driver?"

Oxford city council reportedly said that Uber failed to provide certain details about how its app would operate in Oxford, while the company has been refused a licence in Reading and told it won't be given one in Southend-on-Sea, Essex.

The Sunday Times report comes as Uber's future in London remains uncertain. Uber was banned by transport regulator Transport for London (TfL) on September 22. Uber appealed the ban last Friday. It will continue to operate until a verdict has been passed on the appeal.

Uber also has a fight on its hands in Brighton and it could lose its licence to operate there when it expires next month. The company reportedly broke a promise to use only local drivers and vehicles.

An Uber spokesperson told Business Insider: "Uber has been granted more than 80 licences by councils. Over the last year a small number of licence applications lapsed while we focused on other areas.

"On rare occasions we've not pursued applications as proposed conditions didn't fit with how our app works."

Original author: Sam Shead

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Venture capital firm Draper Esprit Draper Esprit

Venture capital firm Draper Esprit plans to invest $100 million (£75 million) into European seed funds over the next five years, helping to fill a major EU funding hole after Brexit.

Its first commitments are to two British seed funds, Episode 1 Ventures and Seedcamp. As revealed by Business Insider in May, both funds lost out on cash from the European Investment Fund (EIF) this year, after it "paused" new investment into the UK.

Draper Esprit hasn't revealed how much it's put into the two funds, both of which are still in the process of raising investment.

Simon Cook, chief executive of Draper Esprit, said the company planned to invest in up to 20 funds, angel networks, and investment platforms. The firm is currently looking at three other investments.

He said in a statement: "By partnering with the best seed funds, we can help them scale up their series A and B funding rounds more quickly, which in turn will accelerate growth for the most ambitious entrepreneurs."

Cook added that it was "imperative" that UK investors "continue to have access to the best early stage investment opportunities" after Brexit.

The news will be welcome to the UK's crop of new seed funds, which have been lobbying the Treasury for more cash after Brexit.

They face a major hole in funding after the EIF, run by the European Investment Bank, froze investments after prime minister Theresa May triggered Article 50. The EIF has historically acted as a "cornerstone" investor into European funds, meaning it will commit early and up to 40% of a new fund's cash. That gives other, smaller investors enough confidence to buy in. It has, according to Treasury calculations, invested £900 million a year into UK funds, so a sudden freeze on investment has posed a serious challenge.

Prior to Draper Esprit's announcement, VC firms lobbied the Treasury to step in and fill that £900 million funding gap.

The Treasury is currently running a consultation on boosting long-term investment into innovative companies and, in a submission seen by Business Insider, two funds — including Episode 1 — called on the Treasury to put an additional £900 million into the UK's state-owned British Business Bank to stimulate seed investment.

In their submissions, the firms pointed to a crisis in seed funding, particularly for startups trying to raise between £500,000 and £2 million.

Original author: Shona Ghosh

Renaud Laplanche. Upgrade

Renaud Laplanche resigned as CEO of Lending Club last year amid loan selling scandal. Back with new startup Upgrade, an online lending platform with credit scoring features. Upgrade wants to launch one new product a year, with plans for mortgages, auto loans, and more.

LONDON — Renaud Laplanche tries to "keep a positive attitude rather than focus on my frustration" when it comes to Lending Club.

"It's hard — I have good days and bad days," the Frenchman told Business Insider at the LendIt Europe conference in London this week.

Laplanche cofounded US marketplace lender Lending Club in 2006 and led the business to a $5.4 billion (£4.1 billion) float in 2014. But in May last year, he resigned amid during amid scandal. Loans sold to investors were found to violate the terms investors had agreed to buy them on.

"There was a fairly significant compliance issue, I took responsibility for it," Laplanche told BI.

"It was very, very frustrating. I'm not commenting on the story, but the best way to actually understand what really happened is to read the filings. I think the press made it sound a lot worse, a lot more sensational, than it really was."

Laplanche, centre, celebrating LendingClub's 2014 IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Early press reports focused on Laplanche's investment in Cirrix Capital, an external fund that bought Lending Club loans. It was initially claimed that the Lending Club board were unaware of his investment, but later filings made it clear that at least some board members knew.

Now he is focused on "what can I learn from it, what can I do better. Upgrade has been part of that."

San Francisco-based Upgrade is Laplanche's new online lending startup, launched in April of this year. Soul Htite, who set up Lending Club with Laplanche, is also a cofounder of the business.

The motivation came from a desire to "build a platform that incorporates all of these learnings [from Lending Club] and turn the entire thing in a force for good," Laplanche said.

"We had a long list of things where we said, if we had to do it all over again, we would do it differently. All the learnings over the last 10 years, all the feedback we got from the investors, borrowers, partners. There was enough there that we thought, yeah, it's worth building a new platform from scratch."

Upgrade writes personal loans for people looking to consolidate credit card debt. The online platform also features tools that help people learn how to manage their credit score, including a feature that simulates the effect of various actions on their score.

"Let's say you get a $1,000 bonus," Laplanche said. "If you decide to pay down your mortgage or pay off your credit card, it's going to have a very different impact on your credit score and cost of credit."

Upgrade raised $60 million (£45.7 million) in April, the biggest ever Series A funding round for a US fintech startup. Many of Lending Club's original investors have backed the business and Jefferies, an investment bank burned by Lending Club's loan term scandal, has signed up to buy loans from Upgrade — a vindication for Laplanche.

Upgrade spent until late July testing the platform but began ramping up lending in August. Laplanche won't disclose lending to date or growth figures.

He said he hopes to launch a new product each year, with plans to branch into mortgages, auto loans, credit cards, home equity, and lines of credit.

"At Lending Club it took me a very long time to start working on new products," he said. "At Upgrade, I designed the platform from scratch as a multi-product platform, using infrastructure that makes it easy to launch new products. The vision is to address all the credit needs of our customers."

Original author: Oscar Williams-Grut

Boston Red Sox left fielder Jason Bay stands in front of the scoreboard in the third inning against the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 5 of Major League Baseball's ALCS playoff series in Boston. Reuters/Brian Snyder

The rapid rise of bitcoin, the red-hot cryptocurrency up more than 400% this year, has Wall Street abuzz. 

Still, despite its meteoric rise, bitcoin by many measures is still in its very early days. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are used, for instance, by a very small percentage of people and institutions are just starting to look at building out a sophisticated market around the space. 

"We are in the third inning of a burgeoning new asset class," said BlockTower Capital cofounder Matthew Goetz in a recent interview with Business Insider. 

Credit Suisse agrees with Goetz's thesis. In a note out to clients Tuesday, analysts Paul Condra and Mrinalini Bhutoria wrote "the investment infrastructure is emerging."

Cryptocurrency funds like BlockTower Capital have been opening at an eye-popping clip. At least 79 funds, according to Autonomous NEXT, a fintech analytics company, have emerged with an estimated $2 billion in managed assets. Michael Novogratz, a former manager at the $72 billion investor Fortress, for instance, is reportedly starting a $500 million crypto-fund that invests in bitcoin, ethereum, and other crypto-assets. 

At the same time, "private investment firms are increasingly putting resources toward finding ways to provide exposure to the industry," according to Credit Suisse. 

The Wall Street Journal reported that Goldman Sachs was looking into establishing a bitcoin trading operation. As for Credit Suisse, the bank hosted a symposium on cryptocurrencies and blockchain Tuesday.

Bitcoin's epic rise. MI

But there are huge barriers to making cryptocurrencies more palpable to Wall Street, especially in the market for initial coin offerings, a cryptocurrency-based fundraising method.

This year companies have raised more than $2 billion via ICOs, but many have operated outside the realm of financial regulations. Some countries, including China and South Korea, have deemed them illegal. Such countries are worried about a mounting bubble in the space and the impact it could have on retail investors. Wall Street has similar concerns. 

But a mature market could be around the corner. Overstock, the online retailer, launched a trading system that provides a platform on which startups can run ICOs in a manner compliant with the regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Credit Suisse said such initiatives could "catalyze more broad-based investment in the space."

"Regulation remains a key obstacle as – without a clear legal framework – existing service providers are generally unwilling to offer the liquidity, leverage and custody services needed to attract larger investment," the bank wrote. 

This, however, will change over the course of the next five years, according to the bank. It expects SEC-compliant ICOs, which make up less than 1% of the total market, will soon become the norm.

What's less certain is which ICOs and cryptocurrencies will come out on top. Goetz told Business Insider that investing in ICOs and other crypto-assets is akin to betting on the internet during the nineties.

"You could be right on the thesis that cryptocurrencies are transformative and you could make what you think is the right bet at the time, but remember one time you had Yahoo and then this thing called Google came along," he concluded. 

UBS in a note to clients Friday said the same thing: "Investing in the blockchain wave is akin to investing in the internet in the mid-nineties."

Many financial institutions, however, have shied away from the space. 

In a recent interview with Bloomberg News, Larry Fink, the head of BlackRock, the world's largest investor with $5.7 trillion under management, said he thinks the explosive growth of bitcoin points to nefarious behavior.

"It just identifies how much money laundering there is being done in the world," Fink said. "How much people are trying to move currencies from one place to another."

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, more notably, called bitcoin a "fraud" at a Barclay's conference on September 12.

Original author: Business Insider

Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg Axios

How far can $42,800 take you on Facebook? Far enough to swing an election, says one expert.

Ben Kunz, the executive vice president of marketing and content at the media agency Mediassociates, says it could have cost at least this much to swing the 10,700 Michigan voters who tipped the scale in favor of Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

"That's the scary power of Facebook. Its targeting is really, really powerful," he said. "People like to think they can't be persuaded, but the math says it works."

Kunz and his team made the estimate as part of a broader story by Business Insider in which Mediassociates and two other media agencies modeled the cost of using Facebook to reach voters in Wisconsin and Michigan with the intention of swaying their vote.

Facebook has said it discovered roughly $100,000 in ad buys between June 2015 and May 2017 associated with about 3,000 ads used by Russian groups to influence the outcome of the election. CNN reported that several of these ads targeted voters in Michigan, where Trump won by about 10,700 votes, and Wisconsin, which he won by roughly 22,700 votes.

While $42,800 may seem like a paltry amount to swing an election in a state, Facebook's advanced and granular targeting options can amplify the reach and engagement possible with that amount. Anyone looking to swing an election in Michigan could easily pinpoint and target undecided voters through data. After that, "it wouldn't cost much in ad spending to sway their opinions," Kunz said.

Mediassociates' model is based on two assumptions. One is a basic rule of thumb of digital advertising, which is that one out of every 2,000 people, or 0.05%, who view an ad will respond or act on the message. The second is that it is possible to target swing voters.

The model works backward from the exact number of votes by which Trump won both Wisconsin and Michigan — though it's possible that someone targeting swing voters could try to reach more people than that and therefore might spend more money on their campaign.

Trump won Michigan by 10,704 votes. Assuming only 0.05% of viewers will react to an ad, a person would need to aim for about 21.4 million ad impressions. Because Facebook ads cost about $2 for every 1,000 impressions, Kunz's team estimates that to sway this number of voters, a person would need a budget of $42,800.

Samantha Lee/Business Insider

"In reality, targeting this exact 'swing voter' population might take more effort, since some of your ads will reach the wrong people ... and competitors might be fighting you with similar tactics," Kunz told Business Insider. "But a clever political operator would just spend a little more. And for a few hundred grand, he or she could tip an entire presidential election."

Original author: Business Insider

Original author: Shana Lebowitz

October 15, 2017

My partners Chris Moody, Seth Levine, and Lindel Eakman are all blogging right now. My other two partners, Ryan McIntyre and Jason Mendelson have blogged in the past, ut took a break in 2017. Also, the Foundry Group blog is always active, with occasional thought pieces but mostly updates on initial financings both for companies and other funds that we invest in.

So, I thought I’d point you at Moody, Seth, and Lindel’s blogs (and some posts) in case you are interested in following more of what we are doing at Foundry Group.

Moody’s recent post Two Steps Forward, One Step Back talks about being a few months into his gig as a VC, after his announcement of his transition from operator to VC in Joining Foundry Group.

Seth has started a Friday series named Friday Fun because the world needs more fun. His longer thought pieces like The Feature -> Product -> Company Continuum, How to value your SaaS company, and Reading Your VC Pitch Meeting are must-read posts for me – and for every founder and company executive. Also, Seth’s not afraid to be very personal and open, as he shows in his post Drowning.

Lindel is getting into a grove with posts like Saying “No” too often is part of being a good investor, Mi Casa Es Su Casa – How we seek to interact with our family of GPs, and Venture Risk and Return circa 2017. Very few LPs blog, so it’s neat to add Lindel’s perspective as a fund investor into the mix.

If you are following and reading me, I encourage you to follow and read my partners to get the full view of how we think about things at Foundry Group.

Also published on Medium.

Previous PostProfiles on 2017 Boulder City Council Candidates Next PostDigital Security Is Not Working Very Well

Original author: Brad Feld

This is a preview of a research report from BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about BI Intelligence, click here.

Smart speakers — Amazon's Echo, for example — are the latest device category poised to take a chunk of our increasingly digital lives. These devices are made primarily for the home and execute a user's voice commands via an integrated digital assistant. These digital assistants can play music, answer questions, and control other devices within a user's home, among other things. 

The central question for this new product category is not when they will take off, but which devices will rise to the top. To answer this question, BI Intelligence surveyed our leading-edge consumer panel, gathering exclusive data on Amazon's recently released Echo Show and Echo Look, as well as Apple's HomePod. 

In a new Smart Speaker report, BI Intelligence analyzes the market potential of the Echo Look, Echo Show, and HomePod. Using exclusive survey data, we evaluate each device's potential for adoption based on four criteria: awareness, excitement, usefulness, and purchase intent. And we draw some inferences from our data about the direction the smart speaker market could take from here.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

Amazon's new Echo Show is the big winner — it has mass-market appeal and looks like it will take off. The combination of usefulness and excitement will drive consumers to buy the Echo Show. The Echo Look, though, seems like it will struggle to attract that same level of interest.Apple’s HomePod looks likely to find a place in the smart speaker market but won’t dominate its space like the iPhone or iPad did.The smart speaker market will evolve rapidly in the next few years, with more devices featuring screens, a variety of more focused products emerging, and eventually, the voice assistant moving beyond the smart speaker.

In full, the report:

Showcases exclusive survey data on initial consumer reactions to the Echo Look, Echo Show, and HomePod.Highlights the aims and strategies of major players in the smart speaker market.Provides analysis on the direction this nascent market will take and the opportunity for companies considering a move into the space.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

Subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >> Learn More NowPurchase & download the full report from our research store. >> Purchase & Download Now

Original author: Peter Newman

Antibiotic resistance — the phenomenon in which bacteria stop responding to certain antibiotics — is a growing threat around the world.

It's expected to kill 10 million people annually by 2050.

And it hasn't been easy to develop new drugs in order to stay ahead of the problem. Many major pharmaceutical companies have stopped developing new antibiotics, and the drugs that are still in development have faced numerous stumbling blocks toward approval.

So some drugmakers are starting to turn to other solutions, including one that's actually had a fairly long history: phage therapy.

The treatments are made of bacteria-killing viruses called bacteriophages, or phages for short. Discovered in the early 1900s, bacteriophages have the potential to treat people with bacterial infections. They're commonly used in parts of eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union as another way to treat infections that could otherwise be treated by antibiotics. Because they are programmed to fight bacteria, phages don't pose much of a threat to human safety on a larger scale.

"There's huge potential there that regular antibiotics don't have," NYT columnist Carl Zimmer told Business Insider in 2015. "I think what we'd actually have to work on is how we approve medical treatments to make room for viruses that kill bacteria."

A conversation about approval pathways is already underway, with a handful of companies starting to get into the space. The trials, while still in early stages, could one day change the way we confront antibiotic resistance. 

A need for new options 

Dr. Paul Grint, CEO of one small company, AmpliPhi Biosciences, is trying to turn phage therapy into a tool that doctors might be able to one day use alongside antibiotics to treat serious infections. The company's working on phage-based treatments to treat Staphylococcus aureus, a bug implicated in sinus infections, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bug connected to lung infections in people with cystic fibrosis. 

There are a number of reasons why these treatments are gaining some momentum now: for one, there's a big need for antibiotics. In September, the World Health Organization warned that the world is running out of antibiotics. 

"There is an urgent need for more investment in research and development for antibiotic-resistant infections including TB, otherwise we will be forced back to a time when people feared common infections and risked their lives from minor surgery," WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a news release. 

For phages in particular, there have been a number of advancements that help make it more straightforward for phage therapy to go through the FDA approval process. Grint told Business Insider that includes being able to sequence the bugs, which would help determine that you're absolutely getting the right phages in treatment. 

AmpliPhi also has a way to manufacture the therapy that's up to regulatory standards set up by the FDA. 

Using phage therapy in the US

While phage therapy has been around for more than a century, Grint said there's still a lot of education that needs to happen to get doctors and researchers on board, especially in the US. In July, the FDA and National Institutes of Health hosted a workshop regarding bacteriophages, which Ampliphi and others participated in.

There are also some researchers like a group at the University of California at San Diego that are researching phage therapy. In 2016, for example, researchers at UCSD used AmpliPhi's therapy to treat a professor at the university who had a drug-resistant infection.

Even so, the US is treading carefully into the world of phage therapy. For now, AmpliPhi is able to recruit patients under the FDA's "compassionate use" pathway, making it mostly a case-by-case situation for now when other antibiotics have failed.

The hope is to use that information, along with some phase 1 studies that are happening in Australia to gear up for a phase 2 trial in the US. The company's aiming to start that trial in the second half of 2018, meaning it still might be a while before we start using viruses to treat our bacterial infections. 

Original author: Lydia Ramsey

Original author: Áine Cain

Andy Serkis. Astrid Stawiarz/Getty

Known for being the master of the motion-capture performance following his roles as Gollum, King Kong, Caesar (in the “Planet of the Apes” movies), and currently Supreme Leader Snoke (“The Force Awakens,” “The Last Jedi”), Andy Serkis is throwing a major curveball on all of us for his feature directorial debut.

“Breathe,” about the life of Robin Cavendish — who became paralyzed from the neck down from polio — and his wife Robin, is a traditional biopic that is fueled by the performances of its leads Andrew Garfield as Robin and Claire Foy (Netflix's "The Queen") as Diana. The intimate love story is a departure from the usual CGI-focused work Serkis is known for. The movie was made through his production company, The Imaginarium, which mostly focuses on mo-cap projects.

But this is only a brief departure.

The opportunity to make “Breathe” came to Serkis while he was in post production on an extremely ambitious project: A live-action “The Jungle Book” movie for Warner Bros. that will feature a lot of big name actors doing mo-cap of the legendary characters that were brought back to the zeitgeist after Disney's CGI blockbuster release of its own "Jungle Book" movie in 2016.

Business Insider chatted with Serkis in New York City about finding the time to make “Breathe,” why he’s completely okay with movies resurrecting deceased actors through CGI, the status of “Jungle Book,” and how he created the Snoke voice.

Jason Guerrasio: You run The Imaginarium with Jonathan Cavendish, the son of the main characters of "Breathe," Robin and Diana. How did you meet him?

Andy Serkis: Jonathan had seen a film I had made called "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" about Ian Dury, who was a polio sufferer, and a punk rocker first and foremost, and he loved it and began telling me the story about his father. And then he told me he had been developing the script for five years. So we started The Imaginarium.

Guerrasio: So basically you were like, good luck with all of that with your family script.

Serkis: Yeah, it wasn't really the idea I was looking for. We were looking for other directors to direct it. And then I took the script home and I was just floored by it. It was just so incredibly powerful and emotional and you never read scripts like this in terms of the emotional content of it. So I was like, "S---, I'm having lunch with him tomorrow and I think I'm going to pitch me directing his parent's life story." So I did.

Guerrasio: At this point it's just script stage, no talent attached.

Serkis: Right. None. And he said, "Yeah, let's do it." So we started developing it and then "Jungle Book" came along and we started working on that and then that became a long preproduction. We shot "Jungle Book," principal photography, worked on it for a year and a half, and then this weird opportunity came up in the long post production we've had. Andrew and Claire became available and we raised the money in seven weeks and we shot the whole thing in seven weeks.

"Breathe." Bleecker Street/Participant Media

Guerrasio: Was that a nice time to shut off the part of your brain that was focused on "Jungle Book" or while making "Breathe" are you juggling that as well?

Serkis: Juggling lots of plates.

Guerrasio: But was it fun to shoot something that wasn't going to be as heavy motion-capture as "Jungle Book" is?

Serkis: I was so looking forward to it. This joy of seeing the performance at the end of the day rather than waiting a year and a half to see how a character is going to turn out eventually was a joy.

Guerrasio: Is that the big difference of directing "Breathe" versus "Jungle Book," the immediacy of it?

Serkis: In many ways it's the least complicated shoot I've ever done. On "The Hobbit" for Pete Jackson I was his second unit director, so that was my first grand scale experience as a director. Stepping onto a set with 150 crew and working for 200 days straight. The technical side of it was a huge education. So I felt prepared when I went into "Jungle Book."

Guerrasio: Was it nice to go back to basics, so to speak, of traditional filmmaking with "Breathe?"

Serkis: The simplicity was tied together with the brief shooting days. On those big projects you have nothing but time, this was like we have to get all of this in seven weeks. There was pressure. I didn't want to just make a film that felt like a drama-documentary that's handheld and not lit well. I always wanted to make it cinematic. It's based on truth but I wanted it to feel like a fairy tale which gradually gets stripped away towards the end of the movie.

Guerrasio: What did Jonathan think of the movie?

Serkis: He was by my side every day.

Guerrasio: But it's one thing if you make a biopic and the person it's based on is still alive, you may meet them briefly and maybe they'll come out and do press. This is the son of the main characters right next to you. Was it more pressure?

Serkis: We're such close friends, it was a joy. And he's so objective about his life. He wanted to see it from the outside. That was a gift.

Guerrasio: So you found the right guy to be your business partner.

Serkis: [Laughs] That's true. It could have gone horribly wrong.

Guerrasio: What's the latest on "Jungle Book?"

Serkis: We're in a really good place with it. We shot the performance capture, it's live-action, so we shot in South Africa with this amazing young actor named Rohan Chand. Our version is darker in tone to the Disney one. Which I loved.

Guerrasio: So you have seen it?

Serkis: Oh, yeah.

Guerrasio: You didn't feel like, "I can't see it, I have to go in fresh with mine."

Serkis: No. No. Because I just wanted to make sure we weren't covering similar ground and I don't think we are. There was a point where we were neck and neck, these films were potentially going to come out within months of each other.

Guerrasio: Could you sit back and enjoy Jon Favreau's movie and not analyze the heck out of it?

Serkis: When we were shooting at the same time there was a bit of that worry, but I knew our script was for a PG-13 audience. It's a story about identity and we're using performance-capture as opposed to the whole jungle being CG. So, honestly, you can't think about the other one, you focus on what you're doing. I love where it is. We have designed these animals that you can very much see the actors' faces we have — Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale, Benedict Cumberbatch — in them.

Guerrasio: So you're just deep in post right now?

Serkis: Yeah. The animation is flowing. I think it's in good shape.

Guerrasio: I would like your thoughts on motion-capture in general. We've now had CGI versions of living people — Michael Douglas in "Ant-Man," Robert Downey Jr. in "Captain America: Civil War" — but also people who have passed away — Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher in "Rogue One" — is there a certain line the industry should not cross in regards to using the tools we have?

Serkis: You mean digital resurrection?

Guerrasio: Exactly.

Serkis: I think if it's handled with taste and it honors actors who have passed and their families are happy, the estates are happy, if it's done in a respectful way, I think that's perfectly fine. But there has to be a good reason for doing it. Dramatically. Storywise. I mean, I think digitally resurrecting any character from history, Abraham Lincoln could have been performance-captured or Winston Churchill for that matter, it's a way of doing it. It's so funny because we love real stories and bringing people back to life through them. Think of how many actors have done an impersonation of somebody else. Wouldn't it be great to have the real Elvis Presley or someone through 3D imagery?

Snoke in "The Last Jedi." Disney/Lucafilm

Guerrasio: The recent "The Last Jedi" trailer has Snoke’s voice prominently featured. How did you come up with the voice?

Serkis: When I first worked on it with ["The Force Awakens" director] J.J. [Abrams] there was an evolving design of the character. It was going through lots of changes. But it's all about where a character carries his pain, or aggression, or emotional centers and with Snoke it was very much there [putting his hands to the back of his head]. And his skull has got this big scar in the front, so for me it was a fracturing. He's got this cleft in his head and I think it's very painful for him to speak and yet there's an imperiousness about him. He's severely damaged but there's a vulnerability that's he's trying to cover so that was sort of what I was trying to do.  

Guerrasio: I'd like your thoughts on the recently news about Harvey Weinstein's alleged sexual harassment and assault. Weinstein was an executive producer on all the "Lord of the Rings" movies. What's your reaction to the revelations?

Serkis: I think there's no excuse for a culture that allows for any kind of bullying or coercion on predatory behavior and I think we are behoove not just in this industry but across all industries to be vocal about that and to encourage and help and support people who are brave enough to come out and to challenge people who are in positions of authority if they behave badly. That's it. 

Original author: Jason Guerrasio

Original author: Sramana Mitra

Original author: Sramana Mitra

Original author: Sramana Mitra

Original author: Sramana Mitra