IRON MAN and ELF director Jon Favreau is currently in talks with the guys at Disney to helm a live action version of Rudyard Kipling’s THE JUNGLE BOOK. Disney have twice before journeyed into the book, with the classic musical animated tale in 1967 and the live action version of 1994. There is no word yet as to whether this will be a completely new take, or perhaps an adaptation of the animated version, but with Justin Marks writing the screenplay, it seems that this will be a completely new animal.
As always though, since this property is in the public domain, there is a challenger in the form of Warner Bros. who are producing their own THE JUNGLE BOOK with HARRY POTTER writer Steven Kloves taking over scripting duties. I don’t care about two versions, as long as one contains Guns ‘N’ Roses’ classic Welcome to the Jungle”.
Favreau has had a very diverse career and has given us many great family features such as ELF, ZATHURA, and IRON MAN, so there should be no doubting his ability to take on the story of the boy Mowgli who finds himself being raised by wolves.
Source: Deadline
