The Jungle Book director tried to get Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to cameo
Favreau attempted to get the Beatles members to cameo, but was turned down just like the makers of the 1967 animation.
During production on Disney's 1967 animated adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, filmmakers came up with a rather ingenious cameo suited to the world's biggest band; the one, and only, The Beatles.
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr would voice a quartet of vultures fitted with mop top hairstyles, crooning the charming number, "That's What Friends Are For". Except, those plans appear not to have come to fruition; due either to clashing schedules or, as rumours have it, John's own refusal to partake in the gag.
The final film features the vultures in mock-Liverpudlian accents, voiced by J. Pat O'Malley, Digby Wolfe, Lord Tim Hudson, and Chat Stuart; with the more Beatles-influenced number reshaped into a timeless barbershop quartet.
Now, it looks as if Jon Favreau attempted to reclaim such a missed opportunity.
In 2016, the director of the newest version of The Jungle Book claims he tried to get Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to cameo as the vultures, but wasn't able to secure the iconic musicians.
"We don't have the Beatle-vultures," he told The Radio Times. "I did talk about trying to get Paul and Ringo into the film, because they wanted the Beatles for the original, but I couldn't get them. We came to the idea too late. Maybe if there's a sequel..."
One memorable voice Favreau was able to secure was Scarlett Johansson, who provides her vocal cords to the hypnotic and villainous python Kaa; which the director explains was part of his aim to update the male-dominated book for modern sensibilities, alongside the casting of Lupita Nyong'o's wolf Raksha.
"Times are different now. It seems odd to have all-male characters. In the '67 film, it was an all-male cast," Favreau said.
"We don't have the Beatle-vultures," he told The Radio Times. "I did talk about trying to get Paul and Ringo into the film, because they wanted the Beatles for the original, but I couldn't get them. We came to the idea too late. Maybe if there's a sequel..."
One memorable voice Favreau was able to secure was Scarlett Johansson, who provides her vocal cords to the hypnotic and villainous python Kaa; which the director explains was part of his aim to update the male-dominated book for modern sensibilities, alongside the casting of Lupita Nyong'o's wolf Raksha.
"Times are different now. It seems odd to have all-male characters. In the '67 film, it was an all-male cast," Favreau said.
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