Nants ingonyama bagithi baba! Yes, it appears that after a successful string of live action adaptations, ranging from the bloated Alice in Wonderland and Maleficent to the beautiful Cinderella, and culminating in the masterful The Jungle Book, Disney wants to push their luck. Jon Favreau, director of The Jungle Book and the man behind Elf, Iron Man and Swingers will be directing the live action adaptation of The Lion King.
What follows are ten questions I have about this decision.
- If the entire film is done “Jungle Book” style, isn’t that just an animated film?
- If it isn’t done “Jungle Book” style, how are they going to do it?
- Is it going to be Broadway style? Are we going to see a bunch of African props running around like they’re animals?
- Speaking of which, is the cast actually going to stick to its African roots?
- Furthermore, who are you going to get to motion capture these characters that can live up to James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, or Jonathan Taylor Thomas?
- Can one of them be Benedict Cumberbatch? One of them should be Benedict Cumberbatch.
- Can Elton John play Rafiki? That just seems right..
- In this one, are we going to just drop all pretenses and just call him “Hamlet?”
- Or Kimba?
- Are we going to model Scar on the present day political landscape?
Despite all these questions, I do trust Favreau, and Disney has been on a roll with these live action adaptations. So I guess I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and have no worries about this project. I just wish there was a phrase for this type of philosophy.
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