Tom Gormican Set to Direct Anaconda Reboot Starring Jack Black and Paul Rudd, Negotiations Underway
Jack Black and Paul Rudd are currently in discussions to star in a reimagined version of the 1997 horror classic film, Anaconda. It starred Jennifer Lopez, Owen Wilson, Ice Cube, and Jon Voight.
The original movie revolved around a National Geographic film crew coming across the world’s deadliest snake. It instantly became a cult classic and has produced its own sub-franchise as well.
The new rendition is to be directed by Tom Gormican, who is best known for Nicolas Cage’s meta-comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Gormican has also co-written Beverly Hills Cop 4 and its sequel, Axel F.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, Gormican is co-writing the script with his partner, Kevin Etten. The remake of the horror classic is expected to have a different spin.
Apparently, they have updated the story; now it is about friends who are going through midlife crises and decide to recreate their favorite movie from childhood, only to venture into the jungle. It is where they will fight huge snakes, natural disasters and ruthless criminals.
According to the outlet, Jack Black might play a bored wedding videographer, while Paul Rudd could portray a down-on-his luck actor whose Hollywood career died after one season on a cop show. However, other sources say this may change.
This project has been in development since early 2023 at Columbia Pictures, with numerous rewrites as the studio and filmmakers tried to figure out what kind of tone they wanted for the film. Brad Fuller and Andrew Form are producing under their banner, Fully Formed Films. Furthermore, Form recently signed an exclusive contract with Sony Screen Gems’ division.
Columbia Pictures, which is part of Sony’s family of companies, clearly has good reason to revisit the Anaconda franchise. It was an original, grossing 136 million USD globally in no time because of its instant cult status. Consequently, there were several more films like it, including one in theaters in 2004 as well as two Sci-Fi Channel movies in both 2008 and 2009. The last one called Lake Placid vs Anaconda, released in 2015 was something like a horror comedy mashup starring Yanby Butler and Robert Englund.
Black has recently lent his voice to several animated movies like Borderlands, Kung Fu Panda 4, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. He is also going to be in Warner Brothers’ new movie based on Minecraft.
Paul Rudd’s most recent film is titled Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, and he has A24’s Death of a Unicorn as well as John Carney’s Power Ballad, among others coming up.
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