It looks as if the upcoming Jumanji reboot from Sony has now found a director in the form of Jake Kasdan, who you may remember from R-rated comedies like Bad Teacher and Sex Tape. No word on a cast just yet, but the filmmaker will be working from a script by Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinker, who touched up Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers’ original draft.
Based on the 1995 film of the same name, which had Joe Johnston behind the camera and Robin Williams and Kirsten Dunst in front, the reboot is said to “reimagine the original family adventure film and update it for the present.” What that means is that there will likely be a significant amount of VFX work involved here.
Joe Johnston’s beloved original included a metric ton of complicated shots, and if Sony’s overhaul retains the same scope, it’ll need a relatively long lead time for post-production in order to bring the visual effects to life. With less than a year to go though until the tentative release date, there are only two options: fast-track development and toss the casting net far and wide or, on the other hand, settle for a delay.
At this point, it looks like the project may go for the latter option, unless of course they can find a cast rather quickly. Kasdan should certainly be able to attract some talent, given that his past few efforts have been received mostly favourably, so hopefully things can get moving on this one soon.
We’ll keep you posted when we hear more, but in the meantime, tell us, are you happy that Sony is remaking Jumanji, or would you rather see the property left alone?
