Disney Plans To Remake The Lion King In Live Action
Disney announced today their 1994 classic The Lion King would be “reimagined” in the form of a live-action version. Behind it is Jon Favreau, the man who successfully sold the world a “Jungle Book” remake earlier this year. He’ll have this on his plate and a “Jungle Book” sequel.
The project joins a long, long, LONG list of real-world adaptions of animated Disney films in the works, from Pinocchio to Dumbo to The Sword in the Stone, to an “Aladdin” prequel focused on Genie’s backstory. Note that not all of them may get made. The next one in line is a redo of 1991’s Beauty and the Beast, which premieres in early 2017 and has gotten massive hype despite its anthropomorphic objects looking horrifying.
Note that when Disney says “Live-action” here they mean it in the loosest, almost-lying sense of the word. Their “Jungle Book” remake had Mowgli as its sole real-world element; everything else about it was computer animation. Since there isn’t a single human in “Lion King,” one would assume the entire remake would, technically, qualify as another animated film, unless they use footage of actual African savannahs as the background.
Disney will probably promote this the usual way: “The BEST ANIMATED FEATURE since THE LION KING!” Plus, when Pumbaa farts this time, it’ll be in 3D and you can almost smell it. No release window has been revealed for this movie yet.