Donald Glover And James Earl Jones Have Been Cast In The Live-Action “The Lion King”
Mufasa lives! Or, rather, Mufasa will live AGAIN, until that catty queen Scar engineers his tragic death in a live-action film, The Lion King.
Director Jon Favreau, fresh off his live-action The Jungle Book, is giving Simba, Pumbaa, Rafiki, and those angel-dusted hyenas the similar treatment (there are no original ideas in Hollywood). Jon revealed the voice-casting of Donald Glover as Simba, and Mufasa himself, James Earl Jones, via Twitter this week.
According to The A.V. Club:
Sticking to his usual M.O. for big movie announcements, Jon Favreau appears to have just told Twitter that he’s casting Donald Glover as Simba in his live-action remake of The Lion King. Disney has yet to confirm the information, but Favreau tweeted this out earlier this afternoon:
I just can’t wait to be king. #Simba pic.twitter.com/wUYKixMBJI
— Jon Favreau (@Jon_Favreau) February 18, 2017
Matthew Broderick can keep his ass on the Upper West Side, because Childish Gambino has got this. When it came to casting Mufasa, Jon has kept it classic by sticking with the original and only.
Looking forward to working with this legend. #Mufasa pic.twitter.com/1LszbWrcYT
— Jon Favreau (@Jon_Favreau) February 18, 2017
The sad dude from Swingers is a busy bitch.
Details about the live-action Lion King are extremely sparse; Favreau will reportedly film it back-to-back with his second Jungle Book film, but there’s no release date on the books.
A live-action Jungle Book sort of made sense because the main character was human. But there are no humans in The Lion King. They’re all animated animals. So isn’t this sort of like making the cartoon over again just with CGI? Why? (Answer: $$$$$$$$$) Unless they’re putting people in animal costumes, but Darth Vader is probably at the age where he doesn’t want to be jumping around Pride Rock in a bodysuit.
You know there’s currently some amazing screenwriter out in Fresno who’s working at a taco stand and holding on to a revelatory screenplay that will advance the very art of cinema. The poor sap is ripping his or her pubic hair out because they just read in Variety magazine that some huge studio is doing a third reboot of the live-action Garbage Pail Kids vs. Amelia Bedelia movie.
Pic: Disney