Jon Favreau has long had a twin career as both actor and director. He will reprise the role of ‘Happy Hogan’ in Spider-man: Homecoming, due out in July 2017 (a role he’s already undertaken in the Iron Man movies from Marvel, the first two of which he also helmed).
But his next directing gig will be a surprise live-action remake of The Lion King. Generally considered to be one of Disney‘s best modern animated outings, the Oscar-winning film boasted the voices of Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones, Whoopi Goldberg and others and a soundtrack by Elton John.
It probably should not be such a surprise. Favreau’s most recent directing job was a live-action version of The Jungle Book and though there was some doubt in advance, it received generally good reviews and strong box-office when it hit screens in April of this year (and just landed on DVD in the past week). It is also likely he will be directing the Jungle Book sequel – though the date for either future project’s release is not known as yet.
