It may only have just opened, but Disney's The Jungle Book, based on Rudyard Kipling's classic stories, is already set to get a sequel.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney is in talks with director Jon Favreau and screenwriter Justin Marks to return for Jungle Book 2, and negotiating with Favreau and Brigham Taylor to return as producers.
Critics have hailed the live-action/CGI hybrid with superb reviews – and the film grossed almost $US29m in its first weekend opening in Asian and Latin Amrican countries, with $A3.4 in Australia. It opens in North America later this week.
Kipling's story about Mowgli, an abandoned human boy who becomes friends with jungle animals after being raised by wolves, was turned by Disney into an animated version in 1967. That version spawned classic songs such as Trust in Me, I Wanna Be Like You and The Bare Necessities.
The new film includes Bill Murray voicing Baloo the bear, Ben Kingsley as Begheera the panther, Scarlett Johansson as Kaa the snake and Lupita Nyong'o as Raksha the mother wolf. New star Neel Sethi, 12, stars as Mowgli.
Warner Brothers is also in production on a live-action The Jungle Book with Andy Serkis directing, but its release was recently pushed back to 2018.
According to THR, Disney's live-action division, led by president Sean Bailey, has been "striking box-office gold" by reimagining animated classics as live-action films for contemporary audiences.
"The studio first took on its fairy tales such as Alice in Wonderland, Maleficent and Cinderella and is now expanding that repertoire," it reports.
In addition to The Jungle Book, Disney is releasing Pete's Dragon, starring Robert Redford and Bryce Dallas Howard in August.
Alice in Wonderland sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass opens in May and Beauty and the Beast with Emma Watson is scheduled for a March 2017 release.