Hi everyone, Bryan here…
It was only a matter of time before ‘The Lion King‘ was to be remade into a Live-Action Disney movie. Well, with the recent success of ‘The Jungle Book‘, ‘Cinderella‘, and ‘Maleficient‘ – Disney is now in the business of live-action remakes of their classic animated films. Their upcoming ‘Beauty and the Beast‘, which stars Emma Watson as Belle is one of the most anticipated films of next year. Plus, ‘The Little Mermaid‘ has already been greenlit for a live-action remake.
Glad to see Disney taking ‘The Lion King‘ to this live-action realm, because not only was it a perfect animated film, but also a perfect Broadway production on stage. Since Jon Favreau has been helming Disney projects and Marvel projects for a while, it only seemed right for him to come back to the director’s chair and take on the jungle once again – this time with a bunch of lions and is being fast-tracked to production, according to THR.
“The Lion King builds on Disney’s success of reimagining its classics for a contemporary audience with films like Maleficent, Cinderella and The Jungle Book,” the company said on its website. “The upcoming Beauty and the Beast, starring Emma Watson as Belle, is already one of the most anticipated movies of 2017. Like Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King will include songs from the animated film.”
The new film will be similar to ‘The Jungle Book‘, where everything will be filmed mostly on a green screen in Los Angeles with motion capture, practical effects, and puppets along, as Favreau will build upon those factors. The original film has grossed over $968 million worldwide and won many awards. The soundtrack even sold over 14 million copies. I was a bit scared before I saw ‘Jungle Book’, but after seeing how well Favreau did with it, I’m completely confident he will nail this amazing project and story. I wonder if Jonathan Taylor Thomas or Matthew Broderick will come back. And really, you need James Earl Jones back as Mufasa. There really just isn’t anyone else.
What do you think?