New Image from ‘The Jungle Book’ Features Mowgli with the Wolves

by Kyle Miskell     

12.30.2015

As we enter the new year, we continue to learn more about the new live-action version of The Jungle Book. The Jon Favreau-directed film hits theaters in just a few months, and so far we have seen a motion poster as well as a teaser trailer. And as we get closer to that release date, should learn a lot more, especially when the February edition of Empire Magazine is released. It will feature new images from the film. And in anticipation of the magazine hitting shelves, Empire has shared a new image from the film.

Check it out below:

Image via Disney

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The image captures Mowgli, played by newcomer Neel Sethi, and his wolf mother, who is voiced by Lupita Nyong’o. It helps showcase the balance Favreau and company tried to strike between realism and fantasy, as he previously talked about, in attempting to bring to life Rudyard Kipling’s original story while not overlooking the Disney version that has become the go-to version for most folks.
Along with the image, Empire shares Favreau’s casting focus for Mowgli, as Sethi was chosen from a casting call that featured over 2,000 children for the part:

“There was a certain quality we wanted, and we knew he was going to have to carry the film. So it was going to have to be somebody that had a certain charisma, a certain charm and certain qualities that I remember from the cartoon.”

Again, that desire to pay homage to the cartoon seems to have been on the filmmakers minds while also creating their own version that is set in a photo-real environment far away from the look of the cartoon.

Joining Nyong’o and Sethi are Scarlett Johansson as Kaa the snake; Idris Elba as Shere-Khan the tiger; Bill Murray as Baloo the bear; Ben Kingsley as Bagheera the panther; and Christopher Walken as Cousin Louie the orangutan. You can check out the full article in the February edition of Empire Magazine. The Jungle Book hits theaters April 15, 2016.

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