Jack Black and Paul Rudd in talks for ‘Anaconda’ reboot

22 August, 2024

Jack Black and Paul Rudd are reportedly in talks to star in a new “reimagining” of the 1990s cult creature feature Anaconda.

The original Anaconda (1997) was savaged by critics and picked up a number of Golden Raspberry Awards. Despite that, it went on to become a cult classic and made enough money (gross $136.8 million worldwide) to establish a franchise, with Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid (2004), Anaconda 3: Offspring (2008), Anacondas: Trail of Blood (2009) and Lake Placid v. Anaconda (2015) all following.

Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Jon Voight, Erik Stoltz, Danny Trejo and Owen Wilson all starred in the original film, which followed a documentary film crew in the Amazon that comes across an obsessed hunter looking to find a legendary anaconda.

Now, as per The Hollywood Reporter, a new version of the film is set to go into production, with Tom Gormican (The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent) set to direct, as well as to write the screenplay alongside Kevin Etten.

The story of the new film is said to revolve around a group of mid-life crisis-stricken friends who decide to remake one of their favourite movies and head into the rainforest, where Mother Nature has other plans for them.

It was reported back in 2020 that Anaconda might be getting the reboot treatment, with Evan Daugherty, writer of Tomb Raider and Snow White and the Huntsman, being attached as a writer at the time.

Black recently starred in Borderlands, a film that tanked at the box office and with critics, and is now headed to home streaming just three weeks after its theatrical release.

Rudd, meanwhile, was one of the stars of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, which NME awarded four stars, and said it “ultimately succeeds because it’s so much fun to watch”.

“The writers are so comfortable in this world that they get away with poking fun at Ray Parker Jr.’s ludicrous ’80s theme tune, then cranking it out unabashedly at the climax,” the review read. “And guess what, like Ghostbusters as a whole, it’s still a banger.”

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