Bill Murray Joins Jungle Book Cast As Baloo The Bear

Disney’s new live action – animation version of “The Jungle Book” has cast its Baloo the Bear.

Bill Murray will be voicing the bear necessities in the updated Disney classic directed by Jon Favreau according to the Hollywood Reporter. Murray joins a voice cast already featuring Christopher Walken as King Louie, Breaking Bad’s Giancarlo Esposito as Akela, the leader of a wolf pack, Ben Kingsley as Bagheera the panther, Lupita Nyong’o as the mother wolf Raksha, Idris Elba as the tiger villain Shere Khan and Scarlett Johansson as the python Kaa.

Disney’s new live action version of The Jungle Book is set to be released in theaters on October 9, 2015.

Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book recently entered the public domain, and so Disney won’t be the only company in the ‘Jungle Book’ game.  Andy Serkis will be directing another own version of the famous children’s story for Warner Brothers also due out approximately a year later in October 2016.  Casting has not yet begun for the Serkis helmed version.  Andy Serkis is perhaps most famous for his motion capture acting in blockbuster hits.  He’s played Gollum in Lord of the Rings, Caesar in Planet of the Apes and King Kong.  This will be his directorial debut.

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