While the first trailer for The Lion King proved to be a huge success for Disney, becoming the Mouse House’s most-watched trailer ever with 225 million views in its first 24 hours, one person who remains apprehensive about Jon Favreau’s remake is Linda Woolverton, screenwriter on the original 1994 animated movie.
“I don’t know how The Lion King is going to be,” said Woolverton in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, before going on to reveal that one of the main reasons for her concern is that she wasn’t impressed by the way that Disney handled their live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast.
“I wasn’t totally thrilled with the Beauty and the Beast remake because I didn’t think it was exactly true to the mythology of the storytelling,” she said. “Was [LeFou] in love with Gaston? No. He was just a toady and besotted with a person he could never be. The castle is supposed to be impenetrable. After that, the mythology didn’t work for me.”
What do you make of Woolverton’s remarks? Do you share her apprehension over The Lion King? Let us know in the comments below…
Lions rule the African savanna in The Lion King, which welcomes Donald Glover (Atlanta, Solo: A Star Wars Story) as future king Simba, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter (Dreamgirls, Lemonade visual album) as Simba’s friend-turned-love interest Nala, and James Earl Jones (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Field of Dreams) as Simba’s wise and loving father, Mufasa, reprising his iconic performance from Disney’s 1994 animated classic. Chiwetel Ejiofor (Twelve Years a Slave, Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange) was called on to portray Simba’s villainous uncle Scar, and Alfre Woodard (Juanita, Marvel’s Luke Cage) portrays Simba’s no-nonsense mother, Sarabi. JD McCrary (OWN’s Tyler Perry’s The Paynes, Apple’s Vital Signs) fills the shoes of Young Simba, a confident cub who can’t wait to be king, and Shahadi Wright Joseph (NBC’s Hairspray Live, Broadway’s The Lion King) brings tough cub Young Nala to life.
Directed by Jon Favreau (The Jungle Book), The Lion King features a voice cast that includes Donald Glover (Solo: A Star Wars Story) as Simba, Beyonce (Dreamgirls) as Nala, Billy Eichner (Billy on the Street) as Timon, Seth Rogen (Sausage Party) as Pumba, John Oliver (Last Week Tonight) as Zazu, Chiwetel Ejiofor (Doctor Strange) as Scar, James Earl Jones (The Lion King) as Musafa, Alfre Woodard (Luke Cage) as Sarabi, John Kani (Black Panther) as Rafiki, JD McCrary (Vital Signs) as Young Simba, Shahadi Wright Joseph (Hairspray Live) as Young Nala, Eric André (Man Seeking Woman) as Azizi, Florence Kasumba (Black Panther) as Shenzi, Keegan-Michael Key (The Predator) as Kamari and Amy Sedaris (BoJack Horseman) as a new character.
Originally published December 10, 2018. Updated December 11, 2018.
