7. Ron Howard Making The Jungle Book For Warner Bros.
Each year it seems we get a pair of films with the same premise, competing against each other for their audience's attention. This year we have to survive two Hercules films, and I'm sure you remember face-offs like A Bug's Life and Antz, Deep Impact and Armageddon, Mirror Mirro and Snow White & The Huntsman, and Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down. Now, we'll get two live-action Jungle Book adaptations; one from Warner Bros. and one from Disney. Disney has brought Iron Man director Jon Favreau on board for their Jungle Book, and Warner Bros. announced on Friday that Rush and Apollo 13 director Ron Howard has been hired to make theirs. Last month Warner Bros. had the wind taken out of their sails when Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu dropped out of helming the adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's classic, so they needed to bring someone else on board quickly in order to compete with Disney. Howard has a pretty full resume as it is, with doing post-production work on In The Heart Of The Sea, as well as upcoming films Inferno (the adaptation of Dan Brown's newest book), and a real-life drug trafficking drama called Mena. Time will tell if Howard is up for the task of taking on yet another high-profile project, and with production likely starting soon, we'll know soon enough.
James is a 24 year old writer and filmmaker living in Portland, OR. He attended college for graphic design and writes for various sources on the web about film, television, and entertainment.
You can view all of his work on his website, www.thereeljames.wordpress.com
