Disney’s new live-action film “The Jungle Book” will take you on an epic adventure with Mowgli (Neel Sethi), a man-cub who is raised in the jungle by a family of wolves. When he is forced to abandon the only home he’s ever known, Mowgli embarks on a captivating journey of self-discovery.
The all-star cast includes Bill Murray as the voice of Baloo, Ben Kingsley as Bagheera, Idris Elba as Shere Kahn, Lupita Nyong’o as the voice of mother wolf, Raksha and Scarlett Johansson brings life to Kaa. Giancarlo Esposito provides the voice of alpha male wolf Akela, and Christopher Walken lends his iconic voice to King Louie and many others.
Director Jon Favreau did a remarkable job by seamlessly blending live-action with photorealistic CGI animals and environments. In April, I attending the press conference for Disney new film “The Jungle Book”. Participating cast and filmmakers included Jon Favreau (Director), Neel Sethi (“Mowgli”), Sir Ben Kingsley (voice of “Bagheera”), Lupita Nyong’o (voice of “Raksha”), Giancarlo Esposito (voice of “Akela”), Brigham Taylor (Producer).
What inspired Director Jon Favreau to do a live action version of the Jungle book?
(Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)
Jon Favreau “A lot of it was the entheasm of Disney and particularly Alan Horn who is really connected with this film from the Kipling stories from when he was growing up, and I connected very much from the animated films when I was growing up. So we both loved the story and felt technology came to a point that you could tell the story in a new way. I was impressed with the visual effects in films such as “Planet of the Apes”, “Avatar”, “Life of Pi” and specifically, what was done in “Gravity” the way they filmed the principle photography”.
A hundred years ago was the book, fifty years ago was the animated film and now fifty years later it’s time to update this film for our generation. – Jon Favreau
What inspired the Stars to be a part of this film?
(Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)
Sir Ben Kingsley (voice of “Bagheera”) “Jon sat next to me at a party and invited to do the voice of “Bagheera”. I think I said yes before Jon got to the end of the sentence. The captain in charge of the project brings his or her taste to the project; I knew Jon well enough, and I am fond enough of him to know his taste, judgment, and perception of childhood and storytelling completely concurred with mine. So it was a joy to join this beautiful project of his.”
(Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)
Lupita Nyong’o (voice of “Raksha”) “ I was very busy with a campaign for “Twelve Years of Slavery” at the time I met Jon and he very quietly walked me through his idea for this version of “The Jungle Book”. What struck me the most was the compassion in which he was talking about these characters. It was all this state of the art stuff he was doing with the film but at the heart of it was his love for the story and real vision for each character he was going to bring to life and that’s what got me”.
(Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)
Giancarlo Esposito (voice of “Akela”) Jon and I were working on a trailer for the game called “Destiny” and there was a little piece at the beginning of the trailer of a father reading to his son the story of Mowgli from the book. So we connected immediately between takes talking about the book, and I love Kipling. The months later he called me and said “Hey guess what?”.
“I remember Giancarlo reading, the strength of the pack is the wolf and the strength of the wolf it the pack. Month later has I was working on this film, I remembered his reading that and said that the guy I want for Akela” ~ Jon Favreau
Fun Fact:
(Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)
How did Neel Sethi (“Mowgli”) handle the stunts?
Although he is very athletic and it looks like he is climbing almost 400 feet above the ground. As a child actor, he can only go as high as thirty inches of above ground. So most of the shot were films above a blue pad and filmmakers worked their magic.
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