The Jungle Book has been adapted for the screen so many times it’s a wonder anyone really needs to try again. But Disney, which so famously did a great job with the 1967 cartoon version and a slightly less memorable version with 1994's live-action version with Jason Scott Lee, is dipping back into the well for another shot, planning a live-action reboot of the Rudyard Kipling tales{
Writer Justin Marks is the brave man the Mouse House has hired to kick off work on the script, which the studio will hopes will sit alongside the likes of Alice In Wonderland, the upcoming Maleficent (based on Sleeping Beauty) and the rapidly-developing Cinderella in the pantheon of films it once created in animated form.
There’s no word on the story yet: it’s such early days that no one is talking about which stories from the collection will be used and whether the plan will follow Mowgli and co the same way that the 1967 film does. Will there be jazz? Will there be paw-paws and prickly pears? We'll have to wait and see.
This may face competition from Warner Bros., which, has Harry Potter’s Steve Kloves working up its own take, thanks to the Kipling stories now lying in the public domain. If they both get made, which one will be king of the swingers?