Forget about your worries and your strife: Disney has found its lovable and carefree if somewhat bumbling bear for The Jungle Book. The studio said today that Bill Murray will supply the voice of Baloo in its live-action/VFX take on Rudyard Kipling’s classic. Murray joins a powerhouse voice cast that includes Ben Kingsley as worrywart panther Bagheera, Christopher Walken as fire-envious orangutan King Louie, Scarlett Johansson as kaleidoscope-eyed snake Kaa, Luipta Nyong’o as wolf mother Raksha and Idris Elba as villainous, man-hating tiger Shere Khan. Newcomer Neel Sethi is mancub Mowgli in the film from director Jon Favreau, which is set for an October 9. 2015, release. Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Murray next appears in St. Vincent and Cameron Crowe’s untitled pic and is filming Rock The Kasbah. The SNL vet and star of such films as Lost In Translation, Groundhog Day, Ghostbusters and Stripes most recently appeared in The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Monuments Men. Now if only he’d croon “Bear Necessities.”
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