Jon Favreau Will Craft CG Lion King and Jungle Book Sequel Back to Back

Disney and Jon Favreau took us to the next level of computer graphics in entertainment with it’s CG/live-action adaptation of Jungle Book. The film proved that technology has reached the point where a film can exist without a single human character in the mix so Disney quickly signed Favreau to helm a CG remake of their most beloved animated classic, The Lion King.

In an interview with Collider, Favreau divulged Disney’s current plan to realize The Lion King and a sequel to Jungle Book  back to back:

“Right now the plan is that we go right from one into the other, but I know from having worked on two superhero movies back to back, these take many, many, many years. I was working on Marvel movies for like four years back-to-back. It’s a big chunk of your life and you have to make sure that you’re excited and can bring all of your attention and concentration to bear on this because they are really big puzzles. Every film is a puzzle you have to solve — these highly technical ones are like 3D chess. There’s like a whole other level to it that has to be understood and learned.”

Favreau was reluctant to say one way or the other whether or not he would be directing the sequel to Jungle Book, but given his experience so far he would most certainly be the smart and safe choice. This style of filmmaking is a whole new animal and Favreau seems to have cracked the formula with Disney.

Favreau also emphasized just how important it is for himself and Disney that they get the story for the Jungle Book sequel right before moving into production:

“I think nothing’s quick. This is a slow process and rushing it is not a good idea because a lot of when people react to visual effects they don’t like, often times it’s because it’s rushed and because it’s not well thought through ahead of time. Having gone up to Pixar and working with them on this and other projects — and they’re about as technical as you get — they always say the same thing — it’s all about story. Make sure the story is perfect before you launch forward into the next phase. The technical phase doesn’t come until the human storytelling phase is done.”

Disney has always been a major staple in American entertainment but with CEO Bob Iger in charge, the company has risen to new heights, dominating the film market with Star Wars and Marvel films. Diving back into its catalog to create CG remakes of their animated classics is the next step in their path towards world domination.

Now just make my dreams come true, Favreau, and cast Finn Wolfhard to voice young Simba please.

To read or watch the full interview head on over to Collider.

SOURCE: COLLIDER

‘Stargate’ Reboot Isn’t Happening Anymore

A few years ago, Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, writers of the original 1994 sci-fi hit Stargate revealed they would be partnering to return Stargate to the silver screen once the long in development Independence Day: Resurgence was out of the way. After seeing the result of the sequel to Independence Day, it comes as no great surprise that the reboot of Stargate has found its way into development hell.

Rumors pointed to a partnership between Warner Bros. and MGM to realize a new trilogy with Emmerich and Devlin on board. But in an interview with Empire, Devlin has revealed that the breaks have been pumped on the project:

It looked good for a couple of months, but now it’s not looking so good. There are just a lot of things that have to fire at the same time, and there was a moment where I thought it was all firing at the same time, and then it all kind of fell apart.

Devlin cited the current studio system in Hollywood is to blame:

Listen, I think if we did Stargate right, the fans would like it and we could do something really good. But if we screw it up, they’ll reject it. As they should. But I kind of don’t want to do it if I think that we’ll screw it up, and that’s one of the things that’s holding us back.

While Stargate is one of the few reboots I would actually like to see, canceling the project might be for the best. Given the amount of drama going on over at Warner Bros. thanks to the committee in charge of making creative decisions, along with Emmerich’s track record since the dawn of the new millennium, the prospect of the two joining forces sounds like it would be a recipe for disaster. That is if the rumors of Warner Bros. involvement were actually true. The original Stargate was produced independently, free of a major studio’s involvement which allowed the production much more freedom as well as the time to craft the project with the care necessary to deliver something worthwhile. Producing a remake of the film independently in today’s industry would prove much more challenging, however. Hope is not lost yet.

Over the last few year’s we have seen Netflix become a major competitor for the movie studios. The streaming giant was even able to steal this past summer’s lackluster movie season away from the studios with their incredible original programming. Netflix is known to greenlight projects other studios have passed on before and a project like this seems perfect for Netflix, who at this point in time are the only ones out there willing to give filmmakers a chance and provide the necessary conditions for their visions to come to fruition.

SOURCE: EMPIRE

Beauty and the Beast US Official Trailer

The first official trailer for Disney’s live-action adaptation of the animated classic, Beauty and the Beast is here. The remake will bring to life all of the characters from the original plus a new character, a harpsichord named Cadenza created just for the film played by Stanley Tucci. Alan Menken, composer for the original also returns and will introduce three new songs into the new film.

The film stars Emma Watson as Belle, Dan Stevens as the Beast, Luke Evans as Gaston, Josh Gad as Le Fou, Ewan McGregor as Lumière, Sir Ian McKellen as Cogsworth, Kevin Kline as Belle’s father Maurice, Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Plumette, with a script penned by Evan Spiliotopoulos and Stephen Chbosky, directed by Bill Condor.

Beauty and the Beast hits theaters March 17, 2017.

In this live-action re-imagining of the fairy tale, a young woman (Emma Watson) takes her father’s place as prisoner in a beast’s castle, only to fall in love with her beastly captor (Dan Stevens), who turns out to be a prince.