Can you feel the love tonight? Fans of Disney's Oscar-winning animated movie "The Lion King" is getting the live-action treatment, to be helmed by Jon Favreau. The project follows the box office success and critical acclaim received by "The Jungle Book," which was also directed by Favreau.
"The Lion King" joins Disney's growing list of successful reimagining of animated classics such as "Maleficent," "Cinderella" and "The Jungle Book." "Beauty of the Beast," top billed by Emma Watson and Dan Stevens, is fast becoming one of the highly-awaited films of 2017.
According to Disney, "The Lion King" live-action adaptation will feature the songs in the original animated film, which means viewers can sing along to "Hakuna Matata" just like they did when Mowgli and Baloo jammed to "The Bare Necessities" in 2016's "The Jungle Book."
Putting "The Lion King" in the safe hands of Favreau makes perfect sense, considering the work he's done on "The Jungle Book" which currently has an approval rating of 95 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Much of the latter was CGI, except for Neel Seethi who played Mowgli. Essentially, "The Lion King" isn't exactly "live-action" but more of a "reimagining" as Disney would call it, considering no human parts will be played.
Favreau is also working on "The Jungle Book 2." No release date for "The Lion King" has been announced.
"The Lion King" is one of the most successful titles in Disney's portfolio and one of the biggest animated films in history. When it was released in 1994, the movie earned a jaw-dropping $968 million worldwide on a $45 million budget.
Prestigious award-giving bodies also took notice. "Can You Feel the Love Tonight," written by Elton John and Tim Rice, won an Academy Award for original song and Hans Zimmer for original score. The soundtrack also won two Grammy Awards.
The original "The Lion King" movie featured a stellar voice cast including Matthew Broderick as Simba, James Earl Jones as Mufasa, Jeremy Irons as Scar, Nathan Lane as Timon and Rowan Atkinson as Zazu, to name a few.