Jon Favreau, known for his work on Marvel films and The Mandalorian, executive produced the new National Geographic docuseries Lion. The series chronicles the four-year journey of a lion cub named Kio as he grows into the king of his pride. Favreau noted that the production process for Lion, which involved over 1,400 filming days in Kenya's Maasai Mara, was a significant departure from his typical projects.
While discussing the series with co-executive producer Mike Gunton, Favreau explained that the documentary's reliance on the unfolding events of nature was akin to working with "one extreme" approach to filmmaking. This contrasts with full animation, where creators have complete control over world-building. Favreau mentioned his experience with "Oswald," a live-action animated project, and his comfort with animation as a collaborative process that has informed his work on "The Mandalorian" and other Star Wars and Marvel projects.
For his next endeavor, Favreau suggested that the "pendulum swings the opposite way," indicating a desire to move away from the unpredictable nature of wildlife filmmaking. He is considering a different genre, perhaps one that allows for more control, like animation. "I love storytelling and I love collaborating with other people and animation is a very collaborative process," he stated.
In contrast, Gunton plans to focus on plants for his next project, describing them as having "character" and "motivation" when viewed from a different perspective. He also plans to keep his projects more literally grounded.
Favreau observed that the similarities between the docuseries and Disney's "The Lion King," which he directed the 2019 version of, emerged organically during production. He found that the real-life events of Kio's journey mirrored the narrative arc of the animated film. "It's a real testament to the original animated film because you realize the images that we associate with that movie are interpolations of the real environments and the real characters," Favreau said.
The production team decided against any digital manipulation of the footage, choosing instead to rely on traditional filmmaking techniques: music and editing. "Once we have most of the footage, it becomes about using the tools that you have," Favreau explained. "You have more tools, as you could imagine in a traditional narrative film, especially in animation. With Lion, we decided very early on that we weren't going to do any digital manipulation to the footage. And the tools that we had at our disposal, it's like the old days in film. You had music and you had the editing room. You got to choose what shots to use. You got to choose how long you linger on something. And it's juxtaposing those images to create the story."
Gunton added that "identifying and relating to characters that aren't humans, you have to pull all the levers you can." He elaborated that music, narration, and editing are crucial for reminding the audience of the story's context, with the camera work immersing viewers in the world.
Favreau even consulted with Hans Zimmer, who composed music for both "The Lion King" and "Lion," to see if he also recognized the narrative parallels. Zimmer agreed, and his score for "Lion" echoed the spirit of his previous work for Disney.
Filming with lions presented unique challenges. Gunton described the experience as "intense" and "almost like a sniper," due to the need for patience and the unpredictable nature of the animals. "The downside of that is that lions spend a lot of time asleep, but when they do stuff, it's golden. It's very interesting. You can't say, ‘Oh, hold on, we're not ready!’ You have to go. And that's one of the many skills of these crews, predicting when that’s going to happen so they’re ready for it,” Gunton said.
Favreau also recounted an anecdote about how the presence of coffee could influence the lions' activity, humorously noting that "as soon as that happens, [the lions are] going to hit the accelerator."
"Lion" is currently airing on National Geographic and streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.