Disney and Jon Favreau 'Reimagining' The Lion King

From Alice in Wonderland to Pete's Dragon, Disney's recent plundering of their classic back-catalogue has been going full steam ahead for some time now. So, in news that has been inevitable for a while, Disney's remake train has finally arrived at the beloved 1994 classic The Lion King. Following, the huge box-office and critical success of his adaptation of The Jungle Book earlier this year, director Jon Favreau has now signed up to helm this latest 'reimagining'.

Noticeably (despite what you may read elsewhere) neither Disney or Favreau are describing this film as 'live-action'.  In interviews Favreau was not shy in admitting that his Jungle Book was pretty much an animated film, with Mowgli being the only truly live-action element in the film. In this case-assuming that the remake is faithful to the source -the cast will feature no human characters at all. The new Lion King will, therefore, be a straight-up animated film. Just one that will use the latest CGI technology to bring it to life.


Other details are pretty thin on the ground, but it has been confirmed that it will feature songs from the original. It's also quite likely that the new film will also be influenced in some way by the hugely successful stage adaptation of the film, which has gone on to become a phenomenon in its own right.

Favreau has also signed up to a sequel to the Jungle Book, so we're not quite sure which will hit screens first. The film is being "fast-tracked", but no release date has been announced yet.

What do you think of this news? Are you excited or have the Mouse House gone too far this time? Let us know in the comments or via our social media channels!

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