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Disney to remake 'Lion King' with real lions?

Also in Tattle: Alec Baldwin, Donald Trump, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Goldie Hawn, Kate Hudson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and more

Disney announced Wednesday that Jon Favreau will direct the new Lion King.
Disney announced Wednesday that Jon Favreau will direct the new Lion King.Read moreDisney Channel

MAKE A POPULAR animated feature. Turn that feature into a Broadway musical. Then turn that musical back into a life-action feature film.

Sometimes skip the second step.

At Disney, that's called the circle of life.

Now The Lion King will be the latest Disney film to get a live-action remake.

No word yet who's going to play the lion.

Disney announced Wednesday that Jon Favreau, who helmed the box-office hit Jungle Book remake, will direct the new Lion King. He's also at work on a Jungle Book sequel.

The new Lion King follows in the wake of similar remakes for Cinderella, Pete's Dragon and the upcoming Beauty and the Beast.

The original 1994 Lion King grossed $968.8 million and won two Oscars, including one for the Elton John-Tim Rice song "Can You Feel the Love Tonight." The Grammy-winning soundtrack sold more than 14 million copies. And the hit Broadway musical has been running for 19 years.

'SNL' finds new Trump

Saturday Night Live

went outside its cast of regulars to cast

Larry David

as

Bernie Sanders

, and now the Hollywood Reporter says they're doing it again to find a new

Donald Trump

.

Starting Saturday, Trump will be played by Lorne Michaels favorite Alec Baldwin.

Trump had formerly been played by Darrell Hammond and Taran Killam.

* SNL also announced that Hamilton creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda will host the Oct. 8 episode, with Twenty One Pilots as musical guest.

* E! News reports that new faces on SNL's new season will include Mikey Day, Alex Moffat and Melissa Villaseñor. Old faces that will no longer be seen belong to Killam, Jay Pharoah and Jon Rudnitsky.

TATTBITS

* A musical based on the 1988

Shirley

MacLaine film Madame Sousatzka is hoping it can make it to Broadway.

Producer Garth Drabinsky said Wednesday the show Sousatzka has songs by the composer-lyricist team of David Shire and Richard Maltby Jr., whose Broadway shows include 1996's Big.

It will star Tony Award-winner Victoria Clark, Tony-nominee Montego Glover and Tony-winner Judy Kaye. Previews start in February at Toronto's Elgin Theatre.

The new musical's story charts the relationship between an eccentric London-based piano teacher and her pupil, a 15-year-old boy of exceptional talent.

Goldie Hawn says the key to her successful 33-year Hollywood romance with Kurt Russell is that they never got married.

The actress appeared on the British chat show Loose Women earlier this week. She says she "would have been long divorced" if she had gotten married. She says choosing not to get married "gives you the freedom to make decisions one way or the other," adding that she and Russell "liked the choice."

Hawn says "not every relationship works" and adds that movie stars may have "a harder time because the camera is on them all the time."

Hawn has a son, Wyatt, with Russell and two children from her marriage to Bill Hudson: actors Oliver and Kate Hudson.

For Tattle's interview with Kate (Deepwater Horizon) see Page 19.

* Multi-talented Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's next book will be a look back at his long friendship with John Wooden, the celebrated basketball coach at UCLA.

Coach Wooden and Me will be published next June and will combine personal memories and lessons learned from his friend and mentor, Grand Central Publishing told the Associated Press on Wednesday. Wooden, who died in 2010 at the age of 99, coached 10 NCAA championship teams at UCLA. Three titles were won while Abdul-Jabbar, then called Lew Alcindor, was the Bruins' star center.

Abdul-Jabbar, who went on to become the NBA's all-time leading scorer, remained close to Wooden. In a statement released through Grand Central, he called Wooden a great coach and "an even better teacher and friend." Abdul-Jabbar's other books include the memoir Giant Steps and the novel Mycroft Holmes.

* From Variety, a perfect distillation of today's movie business:

"Star Trek Beyond helmer Justin Lin has closed a deal to direct Legendary's Hot Wheels based on the car toyline from Mattel . . .

"Plot details are unknown at this time. Since the film still needs to find a

writer ... "

- Daily News wire services

contributed to this report.

gensleh@phillynews.com @DNTattle