Director Jon Favreau Dishes On The Lion King
Jon Favreau’s The Lion King roars into theaters on July 19.
Recently, the director sat down with D23.com to dish about the project and give fans some insight into the film.
There’s more to see than can ever be seen as director @Jon_Favreau shares everything you need to know about #TheLionKing, in theaters July 19. https://t.co/G0bovVgSiJ pic.twitter.com/Vt00hUA3vK
— Disney (@Disney) June 4, 2019
Favreau’s Brain Was Firing
Favreau told Max Lark that “[The Lion King] has the feeling of a live-action shoot because that’s the way I learned to direct.
“It wasn’t sitting in a chair, looking over somebody’s shoulder or at a computer,” he said. “I’m used to being in a real location.
“[T]here’s something about being in a real 3D environment that gets my brain firing.”
Favreau knows of what he speaks. The director, who broke into filmmaking with Swingers (1996), helmed Iron Man (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), and Jungle Book (2016).
But there are moments that are pretty different than what might expect when working on a traditional film.
“A lot of doing a movie is just walking around, and talking,” admitted Favreau, who is also executive producing Star Wars: The Mandalorian. “So, there might be as many as six of us [on the VR stage] wearing goggles talking about a shot.
“You have the same communication, the same chain of command, the same rhythm to the day.”
Consistent Beats
As far as the new film is concerned, the beats also remain consistent with the original animated classic of 1994.
“We are working off a story that works really well, but the more we looked at, the more we challenged the story,” he said. “There were certain things that needed addressing to make it feel more appropriate to this medium, but as far as the characters, the story, the themes, the music, we really felt that people were very connected to the original, and so hopefully if you are a fan of the original you will look at our film and say, ‘I feel like I saw The Lion King.’”
But Favreau told D23.com that the spirit of the film is hard to shake in any case.
“When you see the stage play, you still feel a connection to the animated film,” he told D23. “Both exist with very close storylines and much of the same music, just different people are playing the characters in a different medium. They don’t seem redundant. You can see the animated film, and you can see the stage show, and love both of them and see them as two different things.
“The challenge for us is to create something that feels like a completely different medium than those two productions.”
Be sure to check out the full feature on D23.com.
Meanwhile, tell us: how excited are you for The Lion King?