‘Iron Man’s Jon Favreau Screens New Film

The Cinema Society and Samsung recently held an exclusive screening for Disney’s The Jungle Book. directed by actor-comedian-director Jon Favreau, famous for helming the mega-hits Iron Man and Iron Man 2. The Jungle Book offers up a bold hi-tech take on the classic children’s tale chronicling the adventures of an orphaned tribal boy, Mowgli (played by newcomer Neel Sethi). The film, drawing on Rudyard Kipling stories and an earlier Disney animation, comes packed with the latest in hi-tech photo realism and CGI. Mowgli ’s story is revered in India, which helped account for the movie’s blockbuster opening there this month, the country’s largest for 2016. (The film debuts in the US on April 15th.)

In the computer-animated film, Sethii gives the only live performance, although he is accompanied by a stellar voice cast that includes Ben Kingsley, Bill Murray, along with Christopher Walken, Lupita Nyong’o, and Scarlett Johannsson.

Sethi, who beat out thousands of candidates for the part, is from Manhattan.

The after-party was held at The Skylark, where guests included: director Jon Favreau, Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka, Brooke Shields, Ashley Greene, Josh Lucas, Denis O’Hare, Scott Adsit (30 Rock), Dean Winters, Doug Liman, Grace Coddington, Nico Tortorella (Younger), Christopher Cuomo, Carol Alt, Micky Dolenz, Eve Plumb, Caroline Rhea, Don Lemon (CNN), Libby Woodbridge (House of Cards), Zuleikha Robinson, Katherine Jenkins, Laura Michelle Kelly (Finding Neverland), Lorraine Schwartz, Hal Rubenstein, Andre Balazs, Julie Henderson, Alex Lundqvist, Caroline Lowe, Ellen von Unwerth, Gucci Westman, Candy Pratts Price, Heidi Mount, Nanette Lepore, Eric “Elew” Lewis, Drew Nieporent, Genevieve Bahrenburg, America Olivo & Christian Campbell, Daniel Benedict, Jazmin Grimaldi, Timo Weiland, and Cinema Society founder Andrew Saffir.