Ben Kingsley joins the cast of Disney's The Jungle Book as the voice of Bagheera the black panther. Kingsley has been previously seen onscreen in Iron Man 3 and Ender's Game.

Iron Man 2 director and Avengers executive producer Jon Favreau is set to direct the film, based on a Justin Marks script.

The reincarnation of The Jungle Book to the big screen will be combine both live action and animated elements. The beloved tale based on a book by Rudyard Kipling follows the tale of an oprhaned boy who lives in the jungle, and is raised by animals.

The story has been adapted in various media -- through comic books, animated movies, and live-action films. The most famous of these is Walt Disney Animation studios animated version in 1967. This classic re-telling has made the story a household name, although the movie's plot lines diverged significantly from the original.

In Disney's 2015 version, the animals will be brought to through CGI and will be voiced by some of the most notable actors in the industry.

Idris Elba, fresh from his well-received portrayal of Nelson Mandela in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, will be voicing the tiger Shere Khan. This man-eating tiger is the arch-enemy of the main character, a boy named Mowgli.

Other stars in the cast include Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years A Slave) who is in final talks to play Rakcha, the mother wolf who takes Mowgli as her own, while Scarlett Johansson is set to be the voice of the python Kaa, another of the story's villains who hypnotizes animals and proceeds to eat them.

The part of Mowgli has not been cast yet.

While Warner Brothers is reported to be developing its own live-action version of the tale, with Andy Serkis as director, the Disney version is set to hit theaters on October 2015.