10-year-old New York native Neel Sethi, who to date has zero big screen acting experience, has been tabbed for the role of a lifetime: Mowgli in Disney’s updated version of The Jungle Book.
This revisiting of the 1967 animated classic will be shot entirely in live action, although Sethi will be the only actual human in the movie. The other characters—from the tiger Shere Khan (voiced by Idris Elba) to the panther Bagheera (voiced by Ben Kingsley)—will be inserted via CGI.
The movie is being directed by Jon Favreau, who said of Sethi that “Neel has tremendous talent and charisma. There is a lot riding on his little shoulders and I’m confident he can handle it.”
While filming has not yet begun, the movie has already been assigned a release date of October 9, 2015. It is just one in a line of Disney live-action remakes that also includes Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and the recently-rumored Dumbo.
[via THR]
