Disney is in the middle of remaking all their animated classics into live-action films, and they must have loved what Jon Favreau did with The Jungle Book. The director/actor is now on board to direct their live-action take on The Lion King.
Favreau tweeted a not-so-cryptic tweet earlier this morning, and Disney has now confirmed it:
https://twitter.com/Jon_Favreau/status/781118520318828550
The Jungle Book was a massive global winner earlier this year, bringing in over $363 million domestically and almost a billion worldwide. Even though it has a similar setting as The Jungle Book, The Lion King is a whole new ball of wax for Favreau. It’s still one of the highest-grossing and most critically successful animated films in Disney’s never-ending catalogue of commercial successes and crowdpleasers. It also has one of the longest-running and most successful Broadway shows in the history of theater.
We don’t have a release date or a shooting schedule for The Lion King, but it should be coming fairly soon. Disney is loving these successful reimagining of their cartoon hits, and they haven’t had a real misfire yet.
