This marks the latest in a string of live-action updates of Disney classics including Cinderella, Pete’s Dragon, the forthcoming Beauty and the Beast and The Jungle Book, which grossed close to $1bn worldwide this year – almost matching The Lion King’s box office tally in 1994.
The Jungle Book director Jon Favreau has teamed up again with Walt Disney to reimagine one of the studio’s biggest hits, The Lion King.
In a statement that followed, Disney confirmed that The Lion King live-action update had been put on the “fast track to production”.
Like Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King is to include songs from the animated film, written by Elton John and Tim Rice.