Jon Favreau to direct live-action version of The Lion King

Following the successful partnership between Disney and Jon Favreau for the latter's live-action version of The Jungle Book, the director has now signed on to give another Disney classic the same treatment.

Favreau will now direct a new “re-imagining” of Disney classic The Lion King, as he hinted earlier today with this tweet:

Excited for my next project 🦁👑

— Jon Favreau (@Jon_Favreau) 28 September 2016

It's the latest in a long line of Disney classics getting the reboot treatment, with films like Maleficent and Cinderella having performed well and others such as Beauty and The Beast also in the pipeline.

One of the notable things about the animated version of course was its score, written by Elton John, but in case you were wondering whether the new film would feature some of those classic songs like 'Hakuna Matata', Disney have confirmed that some of the songs will indeed feature, in keeping with their approach on The Jungle Book which saw Bill Murray perform 'Bare Necessities' and Christopher Walken deliver a brilliant rendition of 'I Wanna Be Like You'.

No release date has been offered up so far, but Disney have confirmed that they plan to “fast-track” the production, so watch this space...