When word spread that Jon Favreau would be doing a live adaptation of The Jungle Book, I have to admit I was skeptical. How could a live-adaptation be accurate to the source material if the animals can’t talk? But everything that we’ve seen come out of Disney and their other production partners has been downright stunning. Check out the image above that Empire exclusively released this morning.
The cast has a ton of heavy hitters, as well as a completely unknown actor in the lead role. Award winners like Bill Murray, Christopher Walken, Ben Kingsley and Lupita Nyong’o will provide voices to the story’s central characters alongside fan favorites like Scarlett Johansson and Idris Elba. At the heart of the story is Neel Sethi, who has only done one film before jumping in full force as the man-cub Mowgli. This image shows little of the story, but clearly illustrates Sethi’s connection to one half of his wolf foster parents in what looks like it will be a moving scene in a rain storm.
The trailer for the new movie, which doesn’t hit theaters until April, is equally stunning.
For all that, I thought the visual effects and digitization of the story would really bother me, but I’m finding this trailer less worrisome than recent. I have high hopes that Shere Khan will equally scare the pants off me IRL, as he did in cartoon form when I saw it in the ’80s.
What do you think? Will you be heading to the theater come April to see just what the man who brought us Iron Man has cooked up or will you be skeptical until a few reviews roll in? Tell us in the comments below!
HT/Image via Empire
