Given how delightfully cheesy the 1997 original is — and what wise guys the two stars are — it’s raising some eyebrows that Paul Rudd and Jack Black are reportedly circling a reboot of Anaconda.
The Hollywood Reporter, however, says that’s the case.
The director will be Tom Gormican, who helmed the hit absurdist Nicolas Cage/Pedro Pascal comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, so this likely won’t be a down-the-middle remake.
The original starred Owen Wilson, Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, and featured Jon Voight as a scuzzy Paraguayan snake hunter in a performance so over the top that it has been immortalized in memes and GIFs.
The movie, about a National Geographic film crew in search of the massive reptile, became a cult hit, grossing more than $130 million. It went on to spawn a 2004 sequel before the franchise went the way of Sharknado with a pair of Sci-Fi Channel horror comedy films in 2008 and 2009.
As for Black and Rudd, THR says it’s not clear who is playing whom, but the two main characters in Gormican’s project are guys having mid-life crises who seek to remake their favorite snake movie — only to run into real trouble in the jungle. One’s a wedding photographer and the other is a fading actor hoping to get back into the spotlight.