Because Hollywood has no qualms about giving you the same story twice in the span of a few months, there are two CGI/live-action adaptations of The Jungle Book on the way. Jon Favreau is heading up one for Disney that has assembled a starry voice cast to go along with release date in 2015. But Andy Serkis is also assembling a version which he'll direct for Warner Bros., and now we're seeing steps taken on both movies.
First up, Bill Murray will voice Baloo in Favreau's The Jungle Book, joining a cast that includes Lupita Nyong'o, Scarlett Johansson, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Christopher Walken, and newcomer Neel Sethi as the orphan, Mowgli. Murray has voiced animated characters before, starring in two (!!!) movies as the lasagna-eating cat, Garfield. The Jungle Book opens October 9th 2015.
And then there's Serkis' film, which has just been titled The Jungle Book: Origins to avoid any confusion. Warner Bros. has been moving slowly on this one as there has yet to be any casting, but they have created some space between the competing flicks by setting an October 21st 2016 date.
