Life. It’s almost like a giant… circle. What happened once will inevitably happen again. This is especially true of animated Disney movies, where Cinderella, The Jungle Book, and Alice In Wonderland have received live-action remakes, with Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Mary Poppins Returns, and reportedly Dumbo, Mulan, The Sword In the Stone, Pinocchio, and Peter Pan to come. (At this point, everything but Song of the South is fair game.) The next re-imagination on Disney’s list: The Lion King.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Jon Favreau — whose The Jungle Book is shockingly good — will direct the “21st century take on the tale” (Zazu is a hipster now). “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,” Disney said in a statement. “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.” But what about the Nazi imagery? Kids love that.
At one point, The Lion King was the second highest grossing movie (behind only Jurassic Park) and the highest grossing animated movie ever — it’s since been bested by, among others, Frozen and Zootopia — and it’s considered one of Disney’s greatest achievement. Favreau will have a lot more pressure on this remake than with The Jungle Book, which people remember fondly, but it’s not considered an all-time classic, like The Lion King. Then again, after David Lowery turned the very boring Pete’s Dragon into the cinematic equivalent of a warm hug, we should probably stop second-guessing Disney.
No release date or casting information has been announced yet, but c’mon, there’s only one correct choice. He can play every character!
(Via the Hollywood Reporter)
