<P> The cast was announced between March and August 2014 , with Idris Elba being announced to voice Shere Khan during early stages and Bill Murray eventually confirmed as the voice of Baloo in August 2014 . Between then , Scarlett Johansson , Ben Kingsley , and Christopher Walken were confirmed to play Kaa , Bagheera , and King Louie . Favreau decided to cast Johansson to play Kaa , originally a male character , as he felt the original film was `` a little too male - oriented . '' Favreau and Marks noticed the lack of female characters in the 1967 film version and wanted to address that by featuring Raksha 's character more prominently , as in Kipling 's tales . Lupita Nyong'o was cast as Raksha as Favreau believed her voice imbued the emotion required for the role , `` Lupita has tremendous depth of emotion in her performance . There 's an emotional underpinning she brings , and a strength , and we wanted that for this surrogate mother . Much of that comes from her voice . '' Favreau also decided to change King Louie from an orangutan to a Gigantopithecus due to the fact that orangutans are not native to India , where the story takes place . His character was given a slight alteration from the 1967 film and was partly inspired by Marlon Brando 's character Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now , as well as incorporating Walken 's own physical mannerisms . In regards to Louie 's changes , Favreau stated , `` We created this looming figure that was trying to extract the secret of fire from Mowgli . And also this gave Mowgli the idea that if he had fire , he could have power over Shere Khan , whether it was good or bad . So there was a Lord of the Rings aspect to that ; the fire was almost like the ring in that was going to give someone ultimate power , but corrupt them as well as create destruction . '' The film is dedicated to Garry Shandling , who voiced a porcupine in the film and died of a heart attack before the film 's release . </P>
<P> The cast was announced between March and August 2014 , with Idris Elba being announced to voice Shere Khan during early stages and Bill Murray eventually confirmed as the voice of Baloo in August 2014 . Between then , Scarlett Johansson , Ben Kingsley , and Christopher Walken were confirmed to play Kaa , Bagheera , and King Louie . Favreau decided to cast Johansson to play Kaa , originally a male character , as he felt the original film was `` a little too male - oriented . '' Favreau and Marks noticed the lack of female characters in the 1967 film version and wanted to address that by featuring Raksha 's character more prominently , as in Kipling 's tales . Lupita Nyong'o was cast as Raksha as Favreau believed her voice imbued the emotion required for the role , `` Lupita has tremendous depth of emotion in her performance . There 's an emotional underpinning she brings , and a strength , and we wanted that for this surrogate mother . Much of that comes from her voice . '' Favreau also decided to change King Louie from an orangutan to a Gigantopithecus due to the fact that orangutans are not native to India , where the story takes place . His character was given a slight alteration from the 1967 film and was partly inspired by Marlon Brando 's character Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now , as well as incorporating Walken 's own physical mannerisms . In regards to Louie 's changes , Favreau stated , `` We created this looming figure that was trying to extract the secret of fire from Mowgli . And also this gave Mowgli the idea that if he had fire , he could have power over Shere Khan , whether it was good or bad . So there was a Lord of the Rings aspect to that ; the fire was almost like the ring in that was going to give someone ultimate power , but corrupt them as well as create destruction . '' The film is dedicated to Garry Shandling , who voiced a porcupine in the film and died of a heart attack before the film 's release . </P>
where does the jungle book movie take place
where does the jungle book movie take place
India
India