Disney is continuing its series of live-action remakes of animated classics with an adaptation of 1994 film The Lion King, which is...what. Why. They say "live-action," but the characters will all be CGI (a la The Jungle Book), which is...what. Why. This, like the upcoming Beauty and the Beast remake, will be a straight remake of the original musical. Jon Favreau (Iron Man, The Jungle Book) will direct the movie, with Jeff Nathanson (Catch Me If You Can, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) writing the script. The known cast so far is as follows: Donald Glover (Community, Atlanta) as Simba James Earl Jones (Star Wars, Dr. Strangelove) as Mufasa, reprising his role from the original No release date has yet been announced for the movie.
Have you seen the Jungle Book remake? The CGI animals in that movie were the most realistic I have ever seen onscreen. If they can replicate that level of detail for the Lion King remake, then I am completely for it. Anyway, no opinion on Donald Glover voicing Simba (though I am sure he'll end up being fine). But I am so happy that James Earl Jones is returning to voice Mufasa in a production that I initially assumed was going to have a completely different voice cast.
I mean, sure, it's just... Making a "live-action" musical featuring exclusively animal characters feels...weird.
Fair enough. I'll admit, I found the idea weird as well at first. But after watching the Jungle Book remake recently (which, while the main character was human, all supporting characters were animals), I became more open to the idea. And with the nostalgic feels it's bound to have, I'm sure it'll excite me as much as the upcoming Beauty and the Beast remake is.
