14 DAY TRIAL // How do you go from portraying an African political leader to a semi-animated tiger on screen? Only Idris Elba knows the answer to that question, as he is currently in final talks to voice the killer tiger Shere Khan in the Disney remake of the classic Rudyard Kipling tale “The Jungle Book.”
According to Deadline, the studio is planning to make a live-action and visual effects mix out of the production, under the direction of Jon Favreau. The man responsible for the visual effects is going to be Rob Legato, whose previous credentials include “Avatar,” “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Hugo” and “Titanic.”
At the moment, Disney is pushing its creative team headed by David Lowery (known from the “Iron Man” series) to complete the creature design and rigging. The reason for that is the fact that there is currently a race going on between Disney and Warner Bros over the title by Rudyard Kipling, which happens to be public domain.
Idris Elba's recent screen performance includes South African leader Nelson Mandela in the movie “Mandel: Long Walk to Freedom,” “Thor: The Dark World” and “Beasts Of No Nation.” In “The Jungle Book” he will be voicing the evil tiger Shere Khan who aims to kill the young Mowgli before he grows up to become a threat.