Disney has cast a 10-year-old New Yorker as Mowgli in the studio's remake of The Jungle Book.

Neel Sethi, who has no previous professional acting experience, will be the only actor to appear on-screen in the mixed live-action and animation movie. The other animals in the Indian jungle will be created in CGI. Sethi was picked from thousands of children who auditioned in the US, Canada and the UK.

"Casting is the most important element of any film, and finding the right kid to play Mowgli was imperative," said director Jon Favreau. "Neel has tremendous talent and charisma. There is a lot riding on his little shoulders and I'm confident he can handle it."

This version of The Jungle Book, which is based on a script by Justin Marks, has a stellar cast in supporting roles: Idris Elba will voice the tiger, Shere Khan, with Ben Kingsley as black panther, Bagheera. Twelve Years a Slave's Oscar-winning Lupita Nyong'o and Scarlett Johansson are in talks to voice the roles, respectively, of the matriarch wolf, Rakcha, and hissing, hypnotising snake, Kaa.

Disney's take on Rudyard Kipling's 1894 collection will focus on the chapter Mowgli's Brothers. Other fables by the writer, such as the story of heroic mongoose Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and the tale of elephant handler, Toomai, are likely to be ignored once again.

The studio's 1967 animated musical, featuring the voice of George Sanders as Shere Khan, is the most famous on-screen incarnation of The Jungle Book. Lesser-known, live-action versions were also made in 1942 and 1994.

Favreau's take is one of two competing films proposed by Hollywood. In March, rival studio Warner Bros tapped Andy Serkis to make his directorial debut on a separate version which is expected to take a darker slant.

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