It looks like director Jon Favreau is about to venture into the jungle again! Hot off the success of directing “The Jungle Book”, Jon Favreau will now be working with the likes of Mufasa, Simba, Scar, Timone and Pumba as he will helm the live action adaption of the Disney animated classic, “The Lion King”.

Jon Favreau posted a cryptic tweet to his followers and it didn’t take them  long to guess what his newest project will be:

Soon after Favreau’s tweet, Disney officially confirmed that Favreau will indeed be directing a live action version of “The Lion King”:

We can officially confirm that The Walt Disney Studios and director Jon Favreau are putting a new reimagining of The Lion King on the fast track to production. The project follows the technologically groundbreaking smash hit The Jungle Book, directed by Favreau, which debuted in April and has earned $965.8 million worldwide. 

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. 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. Disney and Favreau are also in development on a sequel to The Jungle Book. No release date has been announced for either film. 

The Lion King (1994) is one of the biggest animated films of all time with a lifetime global box office gross of $968.8 million, including $422.8 million domestically. It won Academy Awards for the original song “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” (Elton John, Tim Rice) and original score (Hans Zimmer), plus two Grammy Awards, with the soundtrack selling over 14 million copies. In 1997, the stage production The Lion King made its Broadway debut, winning six Tony Awards; 19 years later, it remains one of Broadway’s biggest hits alongside several other productions running around the world, including London, Hamburg, Tokyo, Madrid, Mexico City, Shanghai, and North America. Translated into eight different languages, its 23 global productions have been seen by more than 85 million people across every continent except Antarctica. The Lion King’s worldwide gross exceeds that of any film, Broadway show or other entertainment title in box office history.  

Although no official date was released, we can make a guess that this will be released sometime in 2018.

Source: Jon Favreau, The Walt Disney Company

Joe Hogarty