Jon Favreau In Talks To Direct Live Action ‘The Jungle Book’

Jon Favreau is reportedly in talks to lead a live action version of the children’s classic The Jungle Book, produced by Disney.

The Iron Man 3 director has been approached to lead the adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s book that Disney wants to turn into a new family franchise, according to a report in Variety.

The report says Justin Marks is writing the script for the studio. Marks wrote 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, also for Disney, as well as The Raven.

Negotiations come as Jon Favreau has been attached to another big Disney project, Magic Kingdom, set inside the theme park of the same name.

Production for The Jungle Book with Jon Favreau directing, could begin next year, but it is still early days. That’s the rumor as of now.

Jon Favreau is a director, writer, and producer, with such television and big screen hits as The Office, Revolution, and the Iron Man franchise.

He is currently in production for Secret Cabinet and Chef.

Disney famously adapted The Jungle Book to a successful animated movie in 1967.

The book was first published in 1894 with some illustrations by Kipling’s father, John Lockwood Kipling.

Even though Kipling wrote the stories when he was living in Vermont, he was born and raised in India where he lived until age 6.

As an adult he returned to that country, after living in England for about 10 years.

The tales depicted in The Jungle Book use animals to give moral lessons. Some believe that Kipling was also relating the political and social environment of the times.

The best known book tells the tale of the man cub known as Mowgli, who is raised by wolves in the jungles of India.

The 1967 animated film was directed by Wolfgang Reitherman and it was the last film produced by Walt Disney, who passed away during its production.

“I can’t say that much, but there is an interesting take that could be very cool, and the hope is to relaunch a family brand with certain mythic elements,” Jon Favreau told Mike Fleming Jr. of Deadline “It is my first real family film since Elf, and there are action elements and visual effects that I feel like my experience on the Iron Man films are going to be useful.”

Many of the songs from the original animated The Jungle Book became big hits not only with children, but adults. It is not clear whether Jon Favreau’s versions would also be a musical.