It was confirmed on September 28, 2016, by Walt Disney Pictures that the popular 1994 Disney animated film, The Lion King, will be making a live action remake directed by Jon Favreau and written by Jeff Nathanson.
The Lion King is a story about a kingdom of lions in Africa and was influenced by William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
The animated musical, which was originally directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, is the highest-grossing animated movie of all time, grossing a staggering $968 million dollars in the box office. The movie even earned an Oscar for Can You Feel the Love Tonight by Elton John and Tim Rice.
The cast of this reboot includes some very notable names, and one of them is none other than megastar, Beyoncé Knowles, as Nala, Simba’s love interest. Reports back in March 2016 stated that Knowles was Favreau’s top choice for playing Nala in the remake of The Lion King. On November 1st, her role was confirmed in an official announcement.
Taylor Ellis, sophomore Elementary Education major from Vidalia, Louisiana, stated, “I think it’ll be good for Beyonce to be casted as Nala in The Lion King.” When asked what part she couldn’t wait to see, she replied Timon and Pumbaa’s, stating, “I love them two. Those are my favorite characters out the whole movie and Rafiki too. I really love Rafiki.”
Other recognizable names joining the cast are Donald Glover starring as Simba, Alfre Woodard playing Sarabi, Chiwetel Ejiofor playing Scar, and James Earl Jones reprising his role as Mufasa.
Alea Jones, a sophomore Nursing major from Zachary, Louisiana, stated “I feel like our generation is going to be able to relate to it more because it’s people that we know and that we love so it’s going to be a good thing and I cannot wait to see Beyonce as Nala.”
The film will be reprised in cutting edge CGI format, meaning the scenes will be comprised of real life environments blended with 3D computer graphics, relying on high profile voice acting to bring the animals to life.
Favreau has had experience with directing live action movies before, as he directed a live action version of The Jungle Book. His credits also include directing movies such as Elf, Iron Man, and Iron Man 2.
Favreau explained in a November interview with ComingSoon that the virtual reality technology he used in The Jungle Book will be used to a higher degree in The Lion King stating, “A lot of the simulcam and motion capture technology that we use here, a lot of it was innovated around the making of ‘Avatar,’ and hasn’t really changed much, because there’s just not a lot of consumers. . . There are a lot of people who watch, but not a lot of people who use the technology. So we were finding ourselves building around technology that hadn’t changed a lot in the last 10 years. But now as we’re exploring what is being developed for VR and game engine technology, a lot of that was used to some extent in ‘Jungle Book,’ but as I look forward to developing this process further, there’s a lot over overlap.”
The Lion King is scheduled to be released on July 19, 2019.
Categories:
Lion King in Live Action: The Remake
November 15, 2017
0