Disney has no shortage of fairy tale remakes and reimaginings on the way, bolstered by the box office success of Alice in Wonderland (new posters for its sequel here), Maleficent, and Cinderella. The studio has set in motion live-action projects based on just about every animated hit they've ever had, and one that's due to arrive next year is Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book, which has just unveiled its first poster at the D23 Expo.
Favreau, who took a short break from blockbusters to direct the excellent indie, Chef, talked a little bit about how he planned to honor the spirit of both Disney's 1967 animated classic and the book by Rudyard Kipling. He said he hoped to find "the balance between the iconic, mythic power of the Kipling and all of the images that I grew up with from the animated feature, how do you combine those things? How do you build upon that legacy?”
Footage from the film was also shown and the reaction to it has been wildly enthusiastic, with most commenting on the breath-taking jungle visuals, and the voicework by Bill Murray as Baloo and Christopher Walken as King Louie. The rest of the cast consists of Neel Sethi as Mowgli, Idris Elba as Shere Khan, Lupita Nyong'o as Raksha, Scarlett Johansson as Kaa, Giancarlo Esposito as Akela, and Emjay Anthony as Grey Brother.
The Jungle Book opens April 15th 2016.
