Robert Downey Jr to play a physician in the remake of The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle

Robert Downey Jr will star in The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle, based on the character from the 1920s series of children’s books by Hugh Lofting, reports Deadline. Stephen Gaghan (Syriana, Gold) will direct the film based on a script he wrote, with an earlier draft by Tom Shepherd. In a competitive situation, Universal won the rights to the hot package after it hit town and garnered multiple bids from studios last week. Doctor Dolittle first hit the bit screen in the 1967 musical Doctor Dolittle, directed by Richard Fleischer and written by Leslie Bricusse based on the Lofting novels The Story of Doctor Dolittle, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle and Doctor Dolittle’s Circus. The story follows the eccentric Doctor John Dolittle, a former physician who lives with and treats animals, claiming that he can communicate with them. The film  was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Film and won the award for Best Visual Effects in the 1967 Oscars ceremony. Here’s a clip of the 1967 film with Rex Harrison in the lead role:

Another Dr. Dolittle film was released in 1998 and starred Eddie Murphy in the titular role and was a commercial success, making 294.4 million at the box office when it released. Here’s the trailer:

Robert Downey Jr was most recently seen as Tony Stark in Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Age of Ultron. He will reprise the role in the upcoming _Spider-Man: Homecomin_g and Avengers: Infinity War.