It's the circle of Disney life. If there's a successful animated classic out there, Disney will give it a live-action remake, especially if Jon Favreau is on board.

Favreau just had success with "The Jungle Book," and now Disney has announced the director is taking on "a new reimagining" of "The Lion King." According to Collider, the new film will feature songs from the 1994 blockbuster, but it's not clear what else will be changed or retained.


So that makes "The Lion King" the latest in Disney's series of live-action remakes, including "Maleficent," "Cinderella," "The Jungle Book," and -- next year -- the highly anticipated "Beauty and the Beast" with Emma Watson.

Disney reportedly has several other live-action reimaginings in development, including "Dumbo," "Mulan," "Aladdin," "Peter Pan," "Cruella," "The Sword in the stone," and "Tinker Bell."

It's hard to know how to feel about this. Was anyone begging for a live-action version of "The Lion King"? Probably not. Then again, Jon Favreau has a good track record of not messing with our childhood memories, and only helping to create new cherished memories for cynical adults and their kids, so ... let's stay cautiously optimistic?

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