Ron Howard is in talks to produce and direct Warner Bros.' live-action adaptation of The Jungle Book, Heat Vision reports. He replaces Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who left the film last month because of scheduling conflicts.

Howard's involvement will help keep the studio from falling behind Disney, which has its own own adaptation in the works, with Jon Favreau at the helm.

Both films are based on Rudyard Kipling’s 1894 collection of stories about a Mowgli, an orphaned boy raised by wolves — with help from Baloo the bear and Bagheera the black panther — in the jungles of India, where he fights the ferocious tiger Shere Khan. (The book includes other stories, most notably “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.”)

It's unclear whether the always-busy Howard, who's in post-production on In the Heart of the Sea, will tackle The Jungle Book next.