Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, the classic tale of an Indian boy named Mowgli who is raised by wolves and living among the animals, is becoming quite popular apparently as Walt Disney Pictures, who released the classic 1967 animated version, will be developing their own live action movie based on the book. They’ve hired Justin Marks to adapt Kipling’s short story collection that was first published in the 19th Century.
With Kipling’s book well into the public domain, Warner Bros. has been developing their own live action version of The Jungle Book, written by “Harry Potter’s” Steve Kloves, while at the same time developing a new Tarzan movie. Even so, Disney certainly has an advantage in that most people who hear the title “The Jungle Book” will associate it with the animated feature–Walt Disney’s last production–which they were likely to have seen sometime in the last 45 years.
Marks is a fairly new screenwriting discovery who was involved in early drafts of David Fincher’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Captain Nemo as well as writing The Raven, which is being developed by Mark Wahlberg and Universal Pictures. He also had his hand in drafts of comic book-inspired films Suicide Squad and Super Max.
Even though development is in the early stages, Walt Disney Pictures are already looking for a director who can bring the tale of a boy raised by wolves to the big screen.
