A Slew of Disney Animation Sequels
With the seeming unstoppable success of Disney’s live-action adaption The Jungle Book, and previous box-office toppers Maleficent and Cinderella– Disney is sifting through a lot of old animation classics with an eye to live-action remakes. With the box office success of each successive live-action adaption, it is no surprise at all that we see more adaptions on the horizon. Now Disney is saying they are already working on The Jungle Book 2, with both director Jon Favreau and writer Justin Marks returning to the film.
The Jungle Book spent the third week at number one, making 96 million last weekend, and 337 overall in the US market. It trounced Universals’ entry into the live-action fairy-tale market The Huntsman: Winter’s War by almost times despite the book being in release for three weeks. It seems pretty obvious that Disney owns this market. Some of the new films we can expect to see in the next few years from Disney include:
- Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride– directed by Pete Candeland, produced by Justin Springer;
- Beauty And The Beast– starring Dan Stevens, Emma Watson, Luke Evans and Josh Gad, directed by Bill Condon;
- A Wrinkle in Time– directed by Ava DuVernay;
- Cruella– starring Emma Stone;
- Dumbo– directed by Tim Burton;
- Jungle Cruise– starring Dwayne Johnson;
- Maleficent 2– with Angelina Jolie returning;
- Mary Poppins 2– starring Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda, and directed by Rob Marshall;
- The Jungle Book 2– director Jon Favreau and writer Justin Marks;
- The Nutcracker and the Four Realms– directed by Lasse Hallstrom;
- Tinker Bell: The Movie– starring Reese Witherspoon
Disney has also announced proposed release dates for these live-action fairy-tales. We know that at least four films from this list will hit theaters in 2018. Dates Disney is aiming for are July 28, 2017 (replacing Dec. 22, 2017); April 6, 2018; Aug. 3, 2018; Dec. 25, 2018; and Dec. 20, 2019. Disney had already reserved — Nov. 2, 2018, and Nov. 8, 2019 as release dates.
One of the 2018 release dates should be for The Jungle Book 2, which will put it right up against the Warner Bros. incarnation of the Kipling tale Jungle Book: Origins, the first director project by Andy Serkis.
