26 Jun – Rudyard Kipling's famous classic tale "The Jungle Book" is getting a combination of live-action and animation film adaptation from Disney featuring a voice cast of Ben Kingsley, Scarlet Johansson, Lupita Nyong'O and Idris Elba. American filmmaker Jon Favreau will be directing the film. Favreau is famous for his directorial efforts in "Iron Man" and "Iron Man 2" and he also served as an executive producer in "Iron Man 3" and "The Avengers". Sir Ben Kingsley who was in "Iron Man 3" is set to voice the role of Bagheera, the black panther in "The Jungle Book". The other voice cast of the film includes "The Avengers" actress, Scarlet Johansson who will be voicing the role of the python Kaa, Lupita Nyong'O from "12 Years A Slave" voicing Rakcha, Mowgli's adopted wolf mother from "The Jungle Book" and Idris Elba from "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" as Shere Khan, the Bengal tiger.
Disney has so far released two adaptations of the popular tale, one was an animated adaptation that was released in 1967 and another was a live-action remake in 1994. A sequel for the 1967 "The Jungle Book", "The Jungle Book 2" was also released in 2003. "The Jungle Book" is a story about a young orphan boy raised by wolves named Mowgli, who has many adventures with his animal friends in the wilderness of the jungle.
In other news, it was revealed that Disney is currently in competition with its rival studio, Warner Bros who is also adapting a live-action version of "The Jungle Book" with Gollum voice actor from "The Lord of The Rings" and "Hobbit" movies, Andy Serkis to helm the film. Disney's adaptation of "The Jungle Book" is set to release in U.S. on 9 October 2015.