‘I felt a tremendous responsibility not to screw it up’, Jon Favreau on ‘The Lion King’ remake

While fans eagerly wait for the release of the live-action take on Disney’s The Lion King, filmmaker Jon Favreau shares  the film which  has become a deep part of our culture, and felt a tremendous responsibility while re-imagining the world of Disney’s classic with the use of technology.

The director claims that he has tried his best to stay true to the classic story of Simba and used pioneering filmmaking techniques to bring the iconic characters to the big screen in a whole new way.

“It’s such a beloved property. Disney has had tremendous success with the original animated version and then the Broadway musical. I knew that I had to be very careful with it. I felt a tremendous responsibility not to screw it up,” Favreau said in a statement.

“I wanted to demonstrate that we could be respectful of the source material while bringing it to life using mind-blowing techniques and technologies,” he added.

Director has also shared that it was a trip to Africa that pointed him in the direction of The Lion King.

“I went on a safari to Africa six months prior to first talking to Disney about doing this film,” recalled Favreau.

“I remember when a warthog ran by our safari vehicle, one of the people in our group started singing Hakuna Matata. And then when we saw lions upon a rock, they all said, ‘Oh, look, it looks like Lion King’. This story has become a frame of reference that everybody now knows and accepts.

“It pops up in music, on TV shows, in comedy routines, as part of sketches. It’s continually referenced. It’s such a deep part of our culture that it felt like there was a tremendous opportunity to build on that and to retell the story in a different medium.”

So far the early reactions appearing on social media suggest the upcoming live-action is a “wonderful” remake.

The film opens in theaters on July 19th.