'Jungle Book 2' In The Works At Disney
The live action and CGI big screen adaptation of Disney's animated classic, "The Jungle Book" is bowing in theaters in the U.S. and the U.K. this Friday, after having opened for more than a week in Asian and Latin American countries. Despite this uncertainty in how it will perform in the box office in major territories, Disney is betting big that it will do well, so much so that it is already working on a sequel to the movie.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney is already in talks with Jon Favreau to come back and helm the sequel. The report also mentioned that Justin Marks, who wrote the first film's screenplay, is also in talks to pen the script again.
"Jungle Book" is based on a series of works by Rudyard Kipling and it follows the adventures and misadventures of an orphan boy named Mowgli who was abandoned in the forest, raised by a pack of wolves and made friends with some jungle animals: Baloo the bear, Bagheera the panther, among others. The animal characters were CGI and voiced by famous actors such as Bill Murray (Baloo), Ben Kingsley (Bagheera), Scarlett Johansson (Kaa the serpent) and Lupita Nyong'o (Raksha the mother wolf) while the boy Mowgli was portrayed by newcomer Neel Sethi.
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According to The Independent, the film has so far grossed $31 million after opening in Latin America and Asia. In India alone, it earned $8.4 million in opening week, making it the second highest earning foreign film to open in the country. It has also gotten good reviews from critics.
Favreau, who also directed "Iron Man" and "Iron Man 2," was also cited by PETA for their Innovation in Film Award because of his use of CGI in order to portray animal characters in the film rather than use live animals. He was recognized for "making the compassionate decision to use stunning cruelty-free CGI technology."
