Jon Favreau chats to us about his new movie, The Jungle Book.
Hes followed up his charming comedy dramaChefwith a big budget, hugely cinematic take onThe Jungle Book.
And he spared us some time to natter about it.
Heres how it went….
Does the sense of achievement feel any different as you get to the end of a film?
[Laughs] It too early days really!
Im not sure Im counting it as an achievement yet.
It is a sense of relief, it is exciting.
We worked so long on it.
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I do feel very proud.
Youre at that point?
I remember talking to [director] Alfonso Cuaron after an early screening ofGravity.
And I went up to him and said oh my god, this is a masterpiece.
And he seemed unsure at that point!
And of course it went on to be so well received.
But it shows you that youre almost in the worst seat in the house when you made the thing!
So how was this one to actually put together?
This one was more like a marathon.
You just kept hitting it every day.
The task changed so much that you never got bored.
What you were doing at the beginning was very different from what you were doing at the end.
It didnt feel like you were doing the same thing for three years.
First youre in the story department, trying to pound out the story with story artists.
Youre looking at showreels, like you would if you were at Pixar.
And then all of a sudden, lo and behold we were on a motion capture shoot.
Designing virtual environments and rigging the motion capture performers and seeing it almost like a videogame.
I think even using videogame engines we used Unity, I think.
You were seeing it like a game played out, then you would set cameras and edit that.
And you were also doing the recording of the voices at the same time.
Getting reference data on the performances, and facial work.
All of it was different and all of it took everything we had!
Then it was post-production for a year, so I was an animation director!
I felt like if we went down the road we went down, people would be curious about it.
And if we could tell a good story on top of it?
Wed be in a good position about now!
Im feeling like people are curious!
I wondered if this is you coming back to that audience?
Although that was a very small audience!
[Laughs] But it is the same pop in of story.
Its in the PG sweet spot too.
Its a PG film in the States, yeah.
Because of the animated movie, or with the Kipling stories.
In a way its good, as theres an awareness of it.
If you do good, people will hear about it.
And how is your head?
So far so good.
[Grins] I only know from the few reviews Ive seen and talking to people face to face.
Films do have a lot of time to strike chords, though.
Im sat here talking to you about a film you made 10, 15 years ago!
Zathurais a nice one because even though it does qualify as a bomb in the theatres…
I think it does, yeah.
It was seen as an unsuccessful outing.
You could tell by how many people want to meet with you and how many jobs you get offered.
Thats the truth of it.
Its all connected to how much money your movie makes.
If they think youre a good bet, theyll send you scripts.
I think we got the best notices of any Sony film that year too!
I believe you did.
Im very proud of it.
I dont think any less of it than the ones that were more successful.
Ah, me too.
I think your film does that, but Im curious if thats part of the appeal to you?
Yeah.Elfwas another PG movie I did.
PG takes a few clubs out of your golf bag.
You dont have language, and you dont have violence.
We never had a problem with this.
Yes, yes, yes.
you might have intensity, moments that are scary.
And what it does is force you to create that without showing anything.
Sometimes the off-camera stuff is scarier than the stuff you see.
Youd have the funniest scene after the darkest scene.
Same thing with the animatedTarzan, withThe Lion King…
Nobody talks aboutTarzan!
Thats a great movie.
He kills a cheetah in it.
His parents get killed.
He kills the cat that killed his family later, off camera.
I wanted to fit the music in but didnt want to make a kids musical.
Thats why I looked atThe Lion King, atTarzan, atBambi,Snow White.
To see how do you mix these tones.
Rangos an interesting one too.
Anybody who has kids like us, I say you know your kid.
If theres any doubt, show your kid the trailer.
The trailer is as intensive, not less intensive, than the movie.
You touched on the music.
Can I badly paraphrase one of your lines from your last film,Chef.
Thats exactly how I feel about this.
Ive actually quoted that line in an interview when someone asked me about the songs.
Ah, I didnt see that.
It happened today, so youd be a mind reader!
When I seeCinderella, I love when I hearBibbidi Bobbidi Boocome up.
As a fan, Im never saying that choice feels inconsistent with the tone of the remake.
Im seeingJungle Book, there are certain images I want, and characters I want.
Its why I put King Louie in.
We did our own version of him.
At the end of the day, Ive learned youve got to give people what they want.
In this case, Im one of the people.
I loved the old film, and I said what do I want to see?
Then we haveTrust In Meworked into the score.
I was going to ask about that, as you have Scarlett Johansson singing it over the end credits.
Was that intended to be originally in the cut?
There was always less music, and we slowly added more.
But in the cut, it would have been the first song.
AndI Wanna Be Like Youwas the one where we were pushing it a little bit.
But I would rather have stuff for the scrutiny of people who think it was forced.
Your dividing line appeared to me early on when the elephants turned up.
Okay, I cant have Colonel Hathi, and also have the mythology of Kipling.
And if he became Colonel Hathi and sang, youve added a character to your film, presumably.
And then, whats he referencing a specific moment in history.
It gets dark there.
I wanted this to be timeless.
Even when you see the man village, you never really get a glimpse of when it is.
So to me I love the notion of take the old stories and myths, do it super high-tech.
Thats what worked forStar Warsand Disney, and it worked forAvatar.
I had an awful lot of sympathy for Robert Zemeckis last year withThe Walk.
I watched that film on a gigantic screen and felt queasy, in a good way.
It has to scale, and Im not sureThe Walkdoes.
How conscious were you, when puttingThe Jungle Booktogether, of screen sizes?
To make the characters work across the astonishing range of screen sizes.
We picked an aspect ratio 16:9 that was going to fill up a screen.
Thats how we shot it.
Especially if you love it.
I had the notion of not wanting to be letterboxed.
I wanted to fill your whole screen, and thats why I did 169.
Ive seen it in 3D on a monitor, and it looks amazing.
So I think it works pretty well.
TVs are pretty big now, too!
Were out of time, so one last question.
Do you have a favourite Jason Statham movie?
Ill pickLock, Stock!
Jon Favreau, thank you very much!
The Jungle Bookis in cinemas now.
