Jon Favreau's remake of The Jungle Book for Disney already has several big names attached to it.

Christopher Walken To Lend His Voice To The Jungle Book

Recently, Christopher Walken and Giancarlo Esposito both signed on to voice animals, and previously announced names include Ben Kingsley, Lupita Nyong'o, Idris Elba and Scarlett Johansson. On Friday, Variety reported that the film has now gotten arguably their biggest casting coup as well.

Bill Murray will voice the character of Baloo the Bear. Baloo is the most well-known character in The Jungle Book, because in Disney's animated musical version of the story he sings the memorable song, The Bare Necessities.

Murray needs no introduction. He is one of the most beloved actors of his generation, and no stranger to voicing animals, even if a lot of folks may want to forget his Garfield movies.

Cameron Crowe Film Featuring Bill Murray Pushed To Summer 2015

The Jungle Book tells the tale of Mowgli, a human boy who is raised in the jungle by animals. Mowgli will be played by Neel Sethi, making his film debut, and he will be the only live action actor. The rest of the characters will be animated animals, and evidently it will be released in 3-D as well.

The date for the movie release has been set as Oct. 9, 2015, well before Warner Bros. competing The Jungle Book project, which is currently slated for Oct. 21, 2016. Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book is in the public domain, so it makes turning it into a movie a fairly financially prudent idea. Right now, given this tremendous voice cast, especially with Murray, Disney's The Jungle Book looks like it may make its competitor an afterthought.

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