I-Welcome back before the break we spoke to Chris Evans about Captain America Civil War but now we are joined by Brigham Taylor and Wayne Docksey who are here to talk about the new upcoming Jungle Book remake.
I – How did the idea to produce a remake of the Jungle book come about?
P – well, being the final film Walt Disney, himself ever worked on, we only felt right that a remake was developed for the crowd. Then on July 3rd, 2013, Walt Disney pictures released the fact of them developing a story boarding the adaptations between the original and this remake
ping the remake of the Jungle Book. And from there Jon Favreau starting writing scripts
I – So being Walt Disney’s final film, did you take any inspiration from his Jungle Book 1967?
P – well we took the inspiration of Walt’s love for animation and put it into a live action which he discovered was a new passion for him during the 1950’s. Walt told a quote to the world saying “there’s nothing funnier than the human animal” which portrays to the audience the connect between them and the characters within the film, ya know? We wanted to make sure the connection between the audience and characters was clear and loved because that’s what all Disney studios films are about, which was clearly found within the original and how the happy, joyful characters appealed to the younger audience.
I – with the established inspiration in which you took from the original, is there any tweaks/adaptions you’re making to the remake?
P – well of course. It wouldn’t be a remake if absolutely everything was the same (smiles/laughing). The main tweaks that are made are how the film is live action instead of just pure Cel animation, now we have the capabilities of CGI. Another big difference from the original is how we have focused on the connection between the audience and the main character, Mowgli, played by Neel Sethi, which, as a result, we have had to reduce the amount of songs within the film as well as the really soft tone that the original seemed to obtain. Now it’s more of a hard tone, still suitable for our younger audience, but this relationship between the audience and Mowgli should raise whilst also attracting the older generations that have more of an interest in Disney films in the modern age
I – you mention this relationship between Mowgli and the audience, is there a specific moment within the film where this is shown or is this throughout?
P – well there is also some form of connection throughout the film, but in various specific scenes, there are major connections between the 2 ends of the film. One scene where the connection shows quite well is where Mowgli is being taken towards the man village with Bagheera and he is complaining how he was brought up in the jungle which he believes is where his home is. This moment connects with the audience as they remember he is still a kid but acts like he’s much more responsible and independent, which is what audiences have always connected with. Then with Shere the tiger pouncing on the 2 characters, the audience hope Mowgli is okay, like he’s their own child, and cares for him, feeling sympathetic, further connecting with the characters
I - So you talk about the connection between Mowgli and the audience, what about Mowgli and the other animals. How does Neel Sethi react with the animals when on set.
P - Well all the animals are not real; we use CGI. All animals are made by Special FX and via puppets with our puppeteer, April Warren. We used various blue screens for majority of the film due to forest locations being rare to find. Then we used many props like muddy hills and fake tree branches for Neel to run across for us when later editing, to replace the blue screen with more jungle to give the surreal look we want.
I – and a quick question for you Wayne. How is this new remake of Jungle Book planning to be marketed oppose to how the original one was
M – well we plan to release our official trailer September 15th of this year, 2015, whether or not certain clips and info gets leaked, is up to our IT department to keep safe. Luckily for us, Disney is already well known so It won’t be too hard for word of the film to spread around, but other than the trailers, we plan to post on all social media including Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. We have also been working on a certain style of poster, that we won’t reveal yet! Don’t badger me just yet, however do look out for posters on the jungle book you might notice small details if you look carefully although you might miss some if you were to just take a glance. They will be much more intuitive than the 1967 ones that looked like they were made by a child.
It has been a great journey to produce marketing tools for this new rendition of the jungle book, going from small childrens toys to things like working with KENZO which are a french stylist company to make merchandise like sweatshirts and hoodies, etc that are jungle book themed and we even worked with AirBnB to create a newly made jungle book themed AirBnB holiday home for families looking to venture into the jungle book world, our IT team though have been excellent with dealing with the influx of products and love handling this.
I-It looks like that’s all the time we have now we look forward to the release in the coming years and thank you for your time
I - we’ll back. Before the break we spoke to Chris Evans who spoke about Captain America: Civil War but now we are going to speak to Brigham Taylor and then later on, Wayne Docksey, about the new upcoming Jungle Book remake
Jungle book was released August 2016