India's DQ Entertainment Animating New 3D Film Version of 'The Jungle Book'

As it launches a new feature film division, the India-based animation company DQ Entertainment Ireland Ltd. is greenlighting a new, 3D animated version of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book.

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The project, budgeted at $45 million, has begun pre-production and is aiming for a theatrical release in 2014.  The movie is being written by Billy Frolick(Madagascar) and co-directored by Jun Falkenstein (The Tigger Movie) and Kevin Johnson, with James Hegendus serving as production designer.

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The film is being produced by Tapaas Chakravarti, chairman and founder of DQE, while Eric S. Rollman, CEO of Rollman Entertainment and former president of both Marvel Animation and Saban/Fox Family Productions, is serving as executive producer with DQE vice president of intellectual property Rouhini Jaswal.

Pre- and post-production will be based in Los Angeles, with animation being done at DQE’s headquarters in Hyderabad, India.  The company said it is also developing two other classic titles as film projects.

“Our commitment to animated features marks another major milestone for DQ Entertainment,” Chakravarti said. “By leading off our slate with a 3D stereoscopic version of The Jungle Book, a classic and universally beloved story based in India, our home country, we’re making a bold statement to the industry – that DQE is committed to put the creative, technical and financial resources together to produce compelling, high quality animation for all distribution channels.”    

The studio, which also produces a TV series version of The Jungle Book, ventured into theatrical films for the first time last year by handling the animation for The Prodigies, a feature for Warner Bros., Onyx Films and France’s Fidélité Films.

Kipling’s The Jungle Book has already seen several screen incarnations, the best known of which are the 1942 live action version, produced by Alexander Korda Films, and the 1967 Disney animated version.