Disney Working on The Lion King Live Action Film

[Main Pop Girl]

 

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Disney is now firmly moving forward with a live-action adaptation of The Lion King, and they’re turning to director Jon Favreau to spearhead the project. Walt Disney Studios announced today that it is joining forces with its The Jungle Book helmer on “a new reimagining” of The Lion King, which is on the fast track to production. The film will feature songs from the iconic 1994 film, but beyond that no other specifics are given. 

The move comes as Disney has found immense success in mining its prior animated features for new films. Maleficent was the soft-opening, but things truly flourished with Kenneth Branagh’s sumptuous Cinderella and continued with Favreau’s CG/live-action hybrid The Jungle Book, which is one of the year’s biggest hits as it has amassed $965 million at the worldwide box office. Filmmaker David Lowery’s lovely, earnest Pete’s Dragon failed to reach the same box office heights in August but garnered critical praise, and Disney is poised to dive into millennial nostalgia territory for the first time with next March’s Beauty and the Beast, which sounds like it’s serving as a bit of a template for The Lion King. 

Directed by Dreamgirls helmer Bill Condon, Beast features both classic and new songs and is maintaining the musical aspect of the animated film. It sounds like that’ll be the case with The Lion King, which should come as good news to fans who were disappointed by the lack of full musical numbers in The Jungle Book. 

With The Jungle Book, Favreau did a tremendous job of blending CG characters and environments with his live-action Mowgli, pushing technology to its limits, and Disney was so happy with the results that they quickly set Favreau to helm a sequel. While he’s attached to both The Jungle Book 2 and The Lion King, it appears that the latter is his next film, as Favreau tweeted today he’s excited for his “next project” with appropriate Lion King emojis. 

The liveliness of the CG animals in The Jungle Book was truly stunning, so I have no doubts that Simba, Mufasa, and Nala will come to vivid life in Favreau’s new version of The Lion King. The original film is one of Disney’s best, garnering immense critical praise and spawning a hit Broadway musical. It was only a matter of time before Disney dove into the Lion King well, but given that we now know the technology to bring “live-action” animal characters to life is sound, there’s little reason to fret. Moreover, Disney has shown a willingness to allow its filmmakers plenty of creative freedom on these live-action updates, so while this is absolutely a smart business decision, there’s also reason to be hopeful for the quality of a new Lion King movie. 

Release dates for The Lion King or The Jungle Book 2 have not yet been announced, but this past April Disney staked out release dates for two “Untitled Disney Live Action” films for August 3, 2018 and December 25, 2018. If I were a betting man, I’d say that Christmas 2018 date is prime real estate for a big Lion King redo. 

Disney also has in development live-action redos of Dumbo (which has Tim Burton directing), Mulan, Tinker Bell, Aladdin, Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, The Sword in the Stone, and Cruella. It’s probably only a matter of time before we see Pocahontas or Hercules live-action reboots announced. 

Now, good luck getting “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” out of your head the rest of the day.

Not sure how this is gonna work tbh...The Jungle Book at least had one human character but this doesn't even have the one to rely on.  I still kinda enjoyed it tho so I'm sure they'll do a good job with this one!

[Circuit]

Not a good idea.

[Baby V Alex]

I get it with the jungle book and maybe Beauty & the Beast but Lion King? this is just stupid.

[Tweener]

I liked Maleficent and Beauty and The Beast with Emma Watson will slay!

I love TLK, and I am hyped for the movie. Say what you want, but Disney does magical things and it won't be bad for sure. Think more like kids, folks!

[trayertrash]

I feel like it'll be that cheesy half live action have animation or that thing they did with Homeward Bound where the animals are just kind of there and their movements don't really match up to the voice actors but it'll still be semi-cute because lions are cute but morally awful for me as a vegan because wild animals in Hollywood are extremely abused and I'd feel bad supporting the movie regardless of how good it might be  

[Kevinn Edu]

I want Travis Scott and Kanye West to produce the soundtrack.

[Main Pop Girl]

On 10/2/2016 at 3:24 PM, trayertrash said:

I feel like it'll be that cheesy half live action have animation or that thing they did with Homeward Bound where the animals are just kind of there and their movements don't really match up to the voice actors but it'll still be semi-cute because lions are cute but morally awful for me as a vegan because wild animals in Hollywood are extremely abused and I'd feel bad supporting the movie regardless of how good it might be  

Wait, what even?  I'm pretty sure they're not gonna use live animals at all, they're just gonna recycle the same animations they used from The Jungle Book.  

On 10/2/2016 at 3:50 PM, Kevinn Edu said:

I want Travis Scott and Kanye West to produce the soundtrack.

Fuck off, Elton has to come back for this soundtrack.  Although Elton's lyrics with the production of Kanye's 'Power' could slay I guess...  

[Kevinn Edu]

11 hours ago, Countess said:

Fuck off, Elton has to come back for this soundtrack.  Although Elton's lyrics with the production of Kanye's 'Power' could slay I guess...  

fuck off yourself, mate. i just said i wanted them to produce it   elton can still have his song on their, just with a different, updated sound to it that's still tribal.

[Main Pop Girl]

On 10/4/2016 at 4:45 AM, Kevinn Edu said:

fuck off yourself, mate. i just said i wanted them to produce it   elton can still have his song on their, just with a different, updated sound to it that's still tribal.

I'm here for a couple of updated tracks for the lesser known songs, but they better not fuck too much with the classics.  'Circle of Life' has to stay iconic!