How Jon Favreau And Disney Will Approach ‘The Lion King’ In Live-Action
Jon Favreauhas a lot to live up to with hisThe Lion Kingremake. The 1994 original is one of the crown jewels of the Disney Renaissance of the late ’80s and ’90s and one of the most successful Disney animated movies of all time.
And Favreau is aware of that pressure to adapt a popular story still fresh in people’s minds — it was one of the pitfalls thatBeauty and the Beasthad to navigate with Bill Condon’s 2017 adaptation. But he has a method for making sure he does right by the originalThe Lion King.
Favreau is dealing with material that fans are passionate with, and he toldEntertainment Weeklyat the Tribeca Film Festival that in order to properly adapt it, he has to be equally passionate.
When you’re directing, you have to love [what you’re making]. You have to love it to the point of obsession. I have to live, breathe, sleep it, dream it. If I’m going to do my best work, I need to be completely immersed… you look at the material and you get inspired, and then try to update it for our time. With the Disney stuff, people know even more… WithLion King, people really know [the original], and they grew up with it and it has emotional impact. I think about what I remember aboutThe Lion King?
Favreau went through this process with his adaptation ofThe Jungle Bookas well, honing in on iconic images and moments from the original film to pay homage to in his live-action version.
“I made a big list, and those are the images we definitely needed,” Favreau said, “and you have more latitude to shift and change those things.”
Favreau hit those emotional and nostalgic beats in his version ofThe Jungle Book,whichwas praised forits use of motion-capture technology as well as its earnest retelling of the original story.
Although Favreau got it right the first time,The Lion Kingis a bit fresher in people’s minds and arguably more beloved thanThe Jungle Book. It was an issuethat Condon’sBeauty and the Beastdealt with poorly— by being too loyal to the source material, it created a stiff and unoriginal live-action adaptation that critics accused of playing too safe. Favreau alsofaces the hurdles of creating a film with wholly CGIand motion-capture characters. While many of the characters and set-pieces inThe Jungle Bookwere computer-animated, Favreau had the benefit of a central human character, Neel Sethi’s Mowgli, around whom the action could revolve. Favreau will have no such advantage withThe Lion King, which will feature no human actors.
But Favreau has had practice delivering a worthwhile live-action adaptation of a beloved Disney classic, and he has a passion for the material. And withtalented stars like Beyonce,James Earl Jones and Donald Glovervoicing the characters,The Lion Kingalready sounds rather promising.
