C’mon Ron Howard, you can do better than this. While everyone slept on “Rush” (seriously, it’s a terrific sports drama whether you like racing or not), the director has at least been flirting with more interesting material, whether it’s the still-developing movie franchise/TV series “The Dark Tower,” the recently announced drug tale “Mena,” or his forthcoming water-bound drama “In The Heart Of The Sea.” But, “The Jungle Book”?
Maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to judge. After all, none other than Alejandro González Iñárritu was once taking a look at the project before ultimately walking away, so perhaps there’s more to this than just cashing in on a property that’s now a public domain. What’s in the script by Callie Kloves? No one is really saying, but Warner Bros. is really trying to keep pace with Disney, who have their own live action take in development, with Jon Favreau attached to direct. That’s right folks, there are going to be two “Jungle Book” movies.
But WB may be forced to wait; Howard is in post on “In The Heart Of The Sea,” and has a number of other gigs competing for his attention. But at the very least, this movie lets WB tell Disney not to count them out when it comes to bringing Rudyard Kipling‘s work to the big screen. [THR]