Podcast: ‘The Lion King’ and the business of live-action remakes
Fans remain divided as ‘The Lion King’ releases across UAE cinemas on July 18
With ‘The Lion King’ live-action remake releasing across UAE cinemas on July 18, the polarised early reviews raise the question: does the world really need live-action remakes?
Disney has churned out a number of live-action features from its ever-producing film factory, going as far back as ‘The Jungle Book’, which released in 1994 and was a remake of the 1967 animated film. The success led to the ‘101 Dalmations’ series, followed by ‘Alice in Wonderland’, ‘Maleficent’, ‘Cinderella’ and so on.
‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘Dumbo’ and ‘Aladdin’ have been the most recent releases, with the latter breaking UAE box office records as Disney’s second biggest money spinner in the Middle East, after ‘Avengers: Endgame’.
While the fate of ‘The Lion King’ remains to be seen, it will be interesting to see whether it will welcome a new generation of fans.