Disney's Jungle Book reboot teams up with director bear Jon Favreau for survival

Taking on the traits necessary to ensure it’s the one who will thrive in the suddenly ruthless struggle for Jungle Book reboot survival, Disney has teamed up with bear pal Jon Favreau to direct its new, live-action adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s classic tale about why you should probably just leave your kid in the woods, because he’ll learn everything he needs to know there. Seriously, he’ll be fine! It’ll be fun for him. As we reported earlier, Disney entered the Jungle Book reboot evolutionary race only after Warner Bros. began developing one with Harry Potter writer Steve Kloves and India had already started working on a 3-D, animated version—confident that, despite the competition, the successful 1967 cartoon version embedded in its genetic makeup would help Disney’s Jungle Book remain the dominant species. And that seems even more likely now that it’s palling around with Favreau, who’s already helped the studio with his Iron Man movies and that possible Magic Kingdom project. “There is an interesting take that could be very cool, and the hope is to relaunch a family brand with certain mythic elements,” Favreau told Deadline, before showing it how to scratch its back on a palm tree.