Jon Favreau Talks Embracing Natural Storytelling With Nat Geo’s ‘Lion’
Two creative forces from two very different disciplines — one a blockbuster filmmaker with a penchant for spectacle and humanity, the other a nature documentarian with decades of field experience — have formed an unlikely partnership for a new project about the world of nature. Jon Favreau, director of Iron Man and the live-action remake of The Lion King, first formed a creative bond with Mike Gunton, the legendary producer behind Planet Earth II, while both executive produced the Apple TV dinosaur series Prehistoric Planet.
Now Favreau and Gunton have come together again for Lion, a new National Geographic documentary series following a pride of lions through the eyes of a young male cub named Kio. Part exploration of nature, part royal saga, the doc brings a very human perspective to the lion subjects.
With a career that has typically involved significantly more agency over what happens on screen compared to documentary work, Favreau had a unique perspective on the subjects of the documentary when he and Gunton were in the early stages of production nearly five years ago. During a press roundtable attended by Den of Geek and other journalists, Favreau jokingly said working on Prehistoric Planet with Gunton gave him a “false positive” about how prepared he was for Lion.
“We identified a few that were potential leads, four female matriarchs that we thought were gonna follow this power struggle,” Favreau said. “Unfortunately, some didn’t survive and next thing you know this little cub Kio was born, smaller than all the others. Of course, as a filmmaker, I’m like, ‘Well that’s who I want to watch.’ Mike forewarned me, he said, ‘You know, the statistics aren’t great, This is not an animated movie.’”
Despite the odds, Gunton and Favreau stuck with Kio. Over the course of the next 1,400-plus days, joined by a highly-experienced crew, the pair would anxiously follow the documentary’s young subject, knowing the whims of nature could very easily turn against him and derail years of work.
“We’ve had 20 years of anxiety suffered in the last four years,” Gunton said. “Every day you think this could all fall to the ground if Kio disappears or is killed. It’s a pretty intense experience.”
This commitment to Kio mirrors their commitment to embracing the natural storytelling that came with their subjects. Favreau and Gunton both agreed that they wanted the documentary to be manipulated as minimally as possible; the only tools their crew used in post-production were music and editing.
“I think we’re in a moment — hopefully this will all sort itself out with time — but there’s no transparency,” Favreau said. “So much imagery that’s hitting you, you don’t know what you’re looking at a lot of the time. And so to have this relationship with an audience to say, ‘Hey, sit down, let’s gather around the campfire, we’re gonna tell you a story, and this story is completely organic’ [is important].”
Ultimately, thousands of hours of footage were narrowed down to just under four hours. The four-episode event focuses mainly on the complex, interconnected relationships among the lions of the pride, particularly the bond between Kio and his mother.
“There was something about that relationship, it was almost as if she knew he was gonna be special and he was gonna be her kind of last chance. Even though he was a kind of a weak little cub, there was something about him that we just thought was amazing,” Favreau said.
Of course, no documentary about a family of apex predators would be complete without at least some action. However, Favreau and Gunton made it clear that this is a documentary meant to educate and inspire an interest in nature without losing its focus on storytelling.
“The natural world is an extraordinary place, but it’s a tough place,” Gunton said. “Every single one of those animals, every single day of their lives isa struggle to survive, but they have this burning flame within them to survive, and I think that is in itself inspiring as well.”
Both of Lion’s executive producers hope the documentary experience will bring people of all ages to a new world with a bounty of flora and fauna, all through the lens of a coming-of-age story.
“My kids, sometimes they’ll tell me, ‘Dad, go out and touch grass. Get out in the real world, get away from the screen,’” Favreau said. “Even though we are asking you to tune in on a screen, we are showing a world that really exists, and we were very fortunate to have a group of humans that were able to put this together in a way that curates and cultivates this experience that hopefully will introduce people to a world that they might not know so well.”
All four episodes of Lion premiered Aug. 19 at 9 p.m. ET on National Geographic and are available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu now.
