Ben Kingsley Tipped For Disney's "Jungle Book"

It has been announced that Ben Kingsley has joined  Disney's new live-action film adaptation of author Rudyard Kipling's classic India-set 1894 short story collection called The Jungle Book.

The majority of the tales focus on Mowgli, a young boy raised by wolves whose friends include a bear named Baloo and a panther by the name of Bagheera. They also encounter a tiger adversary named Shere Khan (Idris Elba will both mo-cap perform and provide the voice).

Kingsley will play the black panther Bagheera.

Lupita Nyong'o is playing Rakcha, the wolf who takes in the orphan Mogwli. Scarlett Johansson will portray the sling python Kaa.

Mowgli and the bear Baloo have yet to be cast.

Justin Marks will write the script for "Iron Man" director Jon Favreau.

Robert Legato ("Avatar") will oversee the motion capture elements in the film

The film is scheduled for release on October 9th 2015.

Since the property is in the public domain, Warner Bros is developing its own version with Harry Potter film series writer Steve Kloves working on the script. Filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu had been attached to direct, but he left over scheduling conflicts. Now motion capture actor Andy Serkis is set to direct that version