It appears that Disney’s latest trend is remaking their old classic animated films with a dark live action twist. First came Maleficent which hit theaters earlier this year, Cinderella will be coming out next March, and the next film in their live action remake pipeline is The Jungle Book.
Not a lot is known about the project aside from the fact that it will feature both live action and animation, and it will be directed by Jon Favreau based on a screenplay written by Justin Marks.
Among the known cast is (currently) unknown Neel Sethi as Mowgli, Christopher Walken as King Louie, Giancarlo Esposito as Akela, the leader of a wolf pack, Ben Kingsley as the black panther Bagheera, Lupita Nyong’o as the mother wolf Raksha, Idris Elba as the villainous tiger Shere Khan, and Scarlett Johansson will play the python Kaa.
The latest addition to the already talented cast is none other than Bill Murray who will lend his voice to Baloo the bear. As excited as I am to hear Bill Murray’s voice potentially singing “The Bare Necessities” I can’t help but still want him to jump on board the constantly-struggling-to-catch-a-break Ghostbusters 3. Just do it, Bill!
He’s not going to do it.
Disney’s live action The Jungle Book hits theaters October 9, 2015.
