{"id":601611,"date":"2026-08-22T22:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T22:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/601611\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T22:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T22:54:11","slug":"these-national-geographic-filmmakers-spent-four-years-following-the-journey-of-a-single-lion-cub-i-cant-wait-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/601611\/","title":{"rendered":"These National Geographic filmmakers spent four years following the journey of a single lion cub \u2013 I can\u2019t wait to watch!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m a sucker for a good nature documentary, but National Geographic\u2019s new series Lion \u2013 which premiered this week \u2013 is something I\u2019ve genuinely never seen before.<\/p>\n

Directed by Jon Favreau \u2013 who also helmed Disney\u2019s 2019 CG remake of The Lion King, along with Iron Man and The Mandalorian and Grogu \u2013\u00a0the new series follows the journey of a single lion cub over four years, with over a thousand filming days spent on Kenya\u2019s Masai Mara savannah.<\/p>\n

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During this time, the small cub \u2013 nicknamed Kio \u2013 goes from fighting for survival to becoming leader of the pack, all of which is captured in incredible close-up detail using a full suite of traditional cameras and camera drones<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Favreau was a newbie to documentary filmmaking before embarking on the series, but he teamed up with Mike Gunton \u2013\u00a0a veteran BBC producer.<\/p>\n

LION | Official Trailer | National Geographic – YouTube
\n\"LION<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

ABOVE: Watch the trailer for Lion<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Gunton has worked on many of the BBC nature documentaries narrated by the legendary David Attenborough, such as Dynasties and Planet Earth \u2013 the ones that all of us have watched too many times to count (or is that just me?).<\/p>\n

It was Gunton\u2019s suggestion that Favreau and the team venture into the Masai Mara with drones, something that hadn\u2019t really been done before. To achieve this, the team made use of local talent in Kenya, enlisting aerial cinematographer Anthony Njuguna to get shots with a DJI Inspire<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The best camera deals, reviews, product advice, and unmissable photography news, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

Favreau has discussed how the story of the series was discovered in the process of shooting and editing. The crew started by covering 50 lions with no idea of what the ultimate story was going to be, but found themselves increasingly drawn to Kio the cub as he battled the odds to survive on the unforgiving savannah.<\/p>\n

Despite (or perhaps partly because of) having previously worked on a fully CG film, Favreau was drawn to the project in part by the prospect of creating something that was fully, 100% real.<\/p>\n

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\"Poster\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Disney)<\/p>\n

“As we entered into this project, generative AI came online, and there\u2019s a tremendous influx of content that you don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s authentic or not,” he told National Geographic magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

“The notion of going out into the field and limiting ourselves to completely analog tools and telling an authentic story that feels real, I find that engaging right now, in contrast to how much out there is fabricated.”<\/p>\n

And just when I thought I couldn\u2019t be any more excited, the score for the series is composed by the great Hans Zimmer \u2013 who also composed the music for Disney\u2019s original The Lion King movie back in 1994 (as well as the likes Denis Villeneuve’s Dune trilogy and Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy).<\/p>\n

Lion is available to watch now on Disney Plus and Hulu.<\/p>\n

You might also like\u2026<\/p>\n

Take a look at the best cameras for wildlife photography<\/a> and the best lenses for bird photography and wildlife<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019m a sucker for a good nature documentary, but National Geographic\u2019s new series Lion \u2013 which premiered this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":["post-601611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}