Riding high on streak of live-action successes based on previous
animated properties, The Walt Disney Company has announced today that they are
teaming up with The Jungle Book director Jon Favreau for a
reimagining of The Lion King, and that the project has been put on the fast
track towards production.
The move should not come as a total surprise given the studio's achievements
with Maleficent, Cinderella, and Favreau's The Jungle Book. Even David Lowery's
Pete's Dragon, which just about doubled its production budget, was very well
received by both critics and fans alike.
"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."
But The Lion King is
only one of several live-action projects Disney has in their pipeline. The
studio is also redoing Dumbo, Mulan, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Aladdin,
Tinker Bell, The Sword in the Stone, and Fantasia's Night on Bald Mountain.
Coming up in the near
future, Disney is set to release Bill Condon's Beauty and the Beast next March,
and they have also given Favreau the go ahead for The Jungle Book 2.
No release date has
been given for The Lion King, but the studio has staked dates for two yet
untitled films on August 3, 2018, and December 25, 2018.
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