The Jungle Book director Jon Favreau will be sliding into the director’s chair for a live-action remake of the 1994 classic, The Lion King.
Walt Disney Studios confirmed that this is actually happening on Wednesday.
“The Lion King builds on Disney’s success of reimagining its classics for a contemporary audience with films like Maleficent, Cinderella and The Jungle Book,” Disney said in a press release.
READ MORE: ‘The Jungle Book’ review: Modern take on animated classic a visual pleasure
Favreau’s Lion King will be similar to this year’s Beauty and the Beast update. “Like Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King will include songs from the animated film,” Disney noted. “Disney and Favreau are also in development on a sequel to The Jungle Book. No release date has been announced for either film.”
Favreau tweeted about his new project which included a lion emoji.
Many fans on social media couldn’t contain their excitement about the reboot of the classic film.
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The Lion King is one of the biggest animated films of all time (with a lifetime global box office gross of $968.8 million) and won Academy Awards for the original song Can You Feel the Love Tonight and its original score. The ’90s classic also won two Grammy Awards, with the soundtrack selling over 14 million copies.
In 1997, the stage production The Lion King made its Broadway debut, winning six Tony Awards and 19 years later, it remains one of Broadway’s biggest hits.
Favreau’s Jungle Book, a live-action and CGI blend inspired by the 1967 original, was a box office hit after its release in April, inching closer to a total global box office haul of $1 billion.
Favreau has also produced movies such as the Iron Man films, The Avengers and the holiday classic, Elf.