Disney is investing heavily in making live-action versions of its classic films, such as next year’s Maleficent (based around Sleeping Beauty), 2015’s Cinderella and they’ve also got The Jungle Book in the works. Now Deadline has revealed that director Jon Favreau (Iron Man) is in negotiations to helm The Jungle Book, working from a screenplay by Justin Marks (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo).
Jon Favreau commented, “I can’t say that much, but there is an interesting take that could be very cool, and the hope is to relaunch a family brand with certain mythic elements. It is my first real family film since Elf, and there are action elements and visual effects that I feel like my experience on the Iron Man films are going to be useful.”
Rudyard Kipling novel was published in 1894 and follows a young orphan who is raised in the jungle by a bear, a black panther, and a pack of wolves. It became a classic Disney animated movie in 1967.