Jon Favreau has revealed that he wanted to preserve what was 'charming' and 'memorable' about the original The Jungle Book as he put his stamp on the new adaptation of this classic tale.
Jon Favreau
Favreau is set to return to the director's chair next week with a live-action version of The Jungle Book, which is based on the book by Rudyard Kipling and inspired by the original animation film.
And the director admits that while he did want to bring something new to his version, there were elements of the animation film he was keen to include.
Speaking on the red carpet at the world premiere of The Jungle Book, the filmmaker said: "I think that a lot of people grew up with The Jungle Book that Walt Disney did in 1967 and I wanted to include as much of that as I could but update it.
"I wanted to go from a musical, that was primarily for kids, to something that is more of a PG movie, more of an adventure film for all ages. But still preserve a lot of what was charming and memorable about the original, like the music, the humour, and the characters."
Favreau is no stranger to the blockbuster genre with the likes of Iron Man and Iron Man 2 already under his belt. However, this is the first feature film for the actor/director since the success of Chef back in 2014.
Favreau has assembled a fantastic voice cast as Idris Elba, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Scarlett johansson, and Christopher Walken are on board as Shere Khan, Baloo, Bagheera, Black Widow, and King Louie.
Neel Sethi will provide the only acting performance in the film as he takes on the role of Mowgli. The Jungle Book will introduce us to Sethi as he makes his feature film debut.
Live-action adaptations of Disney movies have been hugely successful in recent years, with Maleficent and Cinderella enjoying big box office success. A live-action version of Beauty and the Beast is also on the horizon.
The Jungle Book is released 15th April.
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