The Walt Disney Co. has tapped scribes Jeff Ahlholm and Colin Goldman to pen “Lion King 3″ — their first professional writing assignment.

A third, in-house Disney writer, Tom Rogers, will also be working on the script.

The Mouse House plans to ship the animated direct-to-video pic sometime next year. Studio feature animation execs are Sharon Morrill and Brian Snedeker.

“The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride” became the bestselling direct-to-vid title ever, with an estimated 13 million-15 million copies shipped to stores. The original “The Lion King” generated $312.9 million in domestic theatrical box office.

Scribes are repped by manager Darby Parker at Zide/Perry and Alan Hergott at Bloom, Hergott, Cook, Diemer & Klein as well as agent Graham Kaye at Innovative Artists.

(Scott Hettrick contributed to this report.)