Disney announced Wednesday morning that the studio will be teaming up yet again with director Jon Favreau, this time for a “reimagining” of The Lion King. The remake will serve as a follow-up to Favreau’s live-action update of The Jungle Book. Favreau confirmed the news, rather cheekily, on Twitter:
Disney has been “reimagining” its animated classics as live-action flicks like Maleficent, Cinderella, and the upcoming Emma Watson–starring Beauty and the Beast, for some time now, so it seems reasonable to assume that The Lion King will follow suit and opt for live-action with heavy computer-generated imagery. What’s interesting though, is that The Lion King, unlike those other films or even The Jungle Book, doesn’t feature any human characters at all—so should we instead expect the movie to be entirely CGI? Might they opt instead for a more avant-garde approach, with real actors in costume (as in the hit Broadway musical)? And can anyone other than Jeremy Irons possibly voice Scar?
Favreau is also working with Disney on a Jungle Book sequel. No dates have yet been released for either film.
