Jon Favreau on His First Documentary, National Geographic’s ‘Lion’: Not Knowing Whether the Lead Character Would Survive Was ‘Harrowing’

By Addie Morfoot

Addie Morfoot

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When renowned wildlife producer Mike Gunton approached “The Lion King” director Jon Favreau about collaborating on a documentary, the director, who had never made a doc, immediately said yes.

It was 2022, and Gunton, an executive producer at BBC Studios Natural History Unit, wanted to “supersize” his “Dynasties” series about vulnerable or endangered species, and make a multipart doc focused on one species. At the time Favreau and Gunton were working together on the first season of “Prehistoric Planet,” a natural-history show that tells the last days of the dinosaur using CGI.

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