From ants to snakes, Paul Rudd seems obsessed with the creepy crawlies.
Deadline is reporting that the “Ant-Man” star is currently up for an Emmy for “Only Murders in the Building” (and a second Emmy nomination for narration) and is in talks with Sony for a remake of the 1997 adventure picture “Anaconda” for Sony. Also rumored to be in the cast is the Grammy-winning actor and comic Jack Black. The screenplay was penned by Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten, who created the meta-Nicolas Cage adventure “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” and also wrote the recent “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” and Netflix. Gormican is set to direct.
Black recently made some news when his Tenacious D. partner Kyle Gass gaffed after the assassination attempt against Donald Trump onstage in Sydney. The “King Fu Panda” star then ended their decades-long partnership. Rudd, once highly regarded for his comic performances in smaller films, has been tied up in the “Ghostbusters” and Marvel franchises, and battling an enormous sea creature could just be the shot in the arm he needs right now.
The original “Anaconda” starred Jon Voight, Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Owen Wilson and Eric Stolz as a documentary crew traveling the Amazon in search of a legendary green anaconda. Though moronic, its tongue-in-cheek nature turned it into something of a surprise box office success that did even better on home video and cable. The shot of the evil Voight getting eaten alive by the enormous snake, from the POV of the monster’s throat is something of an all-time classic. “Anaconda” led to one theatrically-released sequel (“Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid”) and three direct-to-video releases.
Remakes of creature features are nothing new to Jack Black. He appeared in Peter Jackson’s 2005 “King Kong,” which won three Oscars (Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects) and a nomination for Best Production Design. That’s an unlikely future for this likely joke-heavy “Anaconda” riff, but by now one knows never to predict what you’ll find in the jungle.
