Luther star Idris Elba is currently in final talks to be the voice of Shere Khan in Disney's upcoming live-action version of The Jungle Book.

The plan for Disney's take on the Rudyard Kipling story is to have the film be mostly live-action with some VFX, according to Deadline, who first reported the news of Elba's potential casting.

Jon Favreau is already on board to direct the film and visual effects are to be handled by Rob Legato, who has worked on Avatar and Hugo.

The British star most recently starred in the biopic Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom and appeared in Marvel's Thor: The Dark World.

Disney is in a hurry with the project as a rival film over at Warner Bros. has been stalled after director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu dropped out of the project. In February it was rumored that Ron Howard could potentially take the helm, but there hasn't been any official word on that project yet.

Howard might not have time to work on another film as he currently working on Mena with Universal and Heart of the Sea.

image courtesy of ABC