1. The Jungle Book is an upcoming American fantasy adventure film directed by Jon Favreau, written by Justin Marks, and produced by Walt Disney Pictures.
2. The film is a live-action/CGI reimagining of Walt Disney’s 1967 animated film of the same name.
3. It is the third Classic Disney live-action remake.
4. The film stars and introduces Neel Sethi as Mowgli and features the voice talents of Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o, Scarlett Johansson, Giancarlo Esposito and Christopher Walken.
5. The film is scheduled to be released in the Disney Digital 3D, RealD 3D and IMAX 3D formats on April 15, 2016.
6. The plot: Mowgli (Neel Sethi) is a human boy raised by the Indian wolves Raksha (Lupita Nyong’o) and Akela (Giancarlo Esposito). When the fearsome scarred Bengal tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba) threatens his life since man isn’t allowed in the jungle, Mowgli leaves his jungle home. Guided by Bagheera the black panther (Ben Kingsley) and Baloo the bear (Bill Murray), he sets out on a journey of self-discovery while evading the man-hunting Shere Khan. Along the way, Mowgli encounters jungle creatures who do not exactly have his best interests at heart, including Kaa (Scarlett Johansson), a python whose seductive voice and gaze hypnotizes the man-cub, and the smooth-talking King Louie (Christopher Walken), an orangutan-resembling Gigantopithecus who tries to coerce Mowgli into giving up the secret to the elusive and deadly “red flower”.
7. The musical score for The Jungle Book was composed by frequent Favreau collaborator John Debney.
8. Richard M. Sherman, who wrote songs for the 1967 film alongside his late brother Robert B. Sherman, also returned to write new songs for the film.
9. “The Bare Necessities”, originally written by Terry Gilkyson, will be included and sung by Murray.[18] “Trust in Me” is referenced by Johansson’s character in the film’s teaser trailer.
10. A soundtrack album is scheduled to be released on April 15, 2016 by Walt Disney Records.
11. On January 13, 2015, the film’s release date was postponed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures from October 16, 2015, to April 15, 2016.[
12. The film is scheduled to be released in the Dolby Vision format in Dolby Cinema in the United States. It is scheduled to be released in India on April 8, a week ahead of its U.S. debut.
13. Bill Murray voices Baloo in this film; his older brother Brian Doyle-Murray had voiced Baloo in The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Story (1998).
14. This is the first time that Kaa the Snake is portrayed as a female, rather than a male.
15. In The Jungle Book (1967), King Louie was an orangutan; in this film, he’s a gigantopithecus, an ancestor of the orangutan whose range is believed to have included parts of India. This change in species was made to make the film more fantastic and since orangutans are not native to India.
16. All the locations in the film are computer-generated VFX.
17. The talking animals in this film were created using animal behavior, then having the actors copy those movements in motion-capture VFX.
18. This is the fourth collaboration between director Jon Favreau and composer John Debney; they had previously worked together on Elf (2003), Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005) and Iron Man 2 (2010).
19. The wolf cubs in the film are named after motion capture actors and other crew members.
20. Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray’s second film together since Lost in Translation (2003).
21. The original release date was set to be in October 2015, but was switched with another film to be released in 2016.
22. Bill Murray’s debut Disney movie.
23. Giancarlo Esposito who voices the wolf Akela, was featured in a commercial for the video game Destiny (2014) where he narrated a part of the poem “The Law of the Jungle”. This poem appears in Rudyard Kipling’s “The Second Jungle Book”.
24. John Debney’s 13th Disney movie for music score.
25. Ritesh Rajan’s second film after The Last Airbender (2010).
26. The animal characters were both motion captured by and performed live on set by puppeteers from the Jim Henson Company. For the on set performances, Jim Henson’s Creature Shop built elaborate life sized puppets to act along side Mowgli and serve as eye-lines.
27. Kaa being a female in this film is ironic as female snakes in real life are actually more vicious than their male counterparts.
28. Scarlett Johansson was eight months pregnant when she voiced Kaa.
29. During one of the trailers Baloo says if anything happens to Mowgli he will never forgive himself. In the 1967 version Baloo voiced by Phil Harris say almost the exact same thing except he said ‘little guy’ while Baloo in the trailer said ‘kid’.
30. Released almost 50 years after the Disney animated version.
31. This is Bill Murray and Christopher Walken’s first voice over job since Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) 7 years prior and Kangaroo Jack (2003) 13 years prior respectively.
32. Scarlett Johansson and Emjay Anthony’s second film with director Jon Favreau after Chef (2014), and Scarlett’s third with Favreau after Iron Man 2 (2010).
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