Oscar winner Christopher Walken is giving Disney’s The Jungle Book the bare necessities–his voice.
The actor has signed to work on the upcoming feature film, alongside Lupita Nyong’o, Scarlett Johansson, Idris Elba and Ben Kingsley, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Giancarlo Esposito, better known as Gus from Breaking Bad, has also joined the cast. Walken will play ape leader King Louie while Esposito will play Akela the wolf.
The film, directed by Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Chef), is a mixture of CGI and live-action footage. Only 10-year-old Neel Sethi will appear on-screen, starring as the young boy Mowgli.
The film, which swings into theaters on Oct. 9 next year, is one of two adaptations of the Rudyard Kipling stories in the works — a live-action version from Warner Bros. directed by Andy Serkis, a.k.a. Gollum from Lord of the Rings, is also on the way.
[THR]
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Write to Nolan Feeney at nolan.feeney@time.com