Director Hired For Sony’s Jumanji Reboot

Welcome back to the jungle, as a new take on fantasy adventure ‘Jumanji’ is in the works at Sony.

The 1995 original from director Joe Johnston, based on the novel by Chris Van Allsburg, starred the late Robin Williams and a young Kirsten Dunst in a tale of a magical board game whose perilous jungle journey breaks through into the real world, replete with wild animals, killer plants and tropical storms.

It spawned a semi-sequel in 2005′s ‘Zathura: A Space Adventure,’ which was directed by a pre-’Iron Man’ Jon Favreau and starred a young Josh Hutcherson and Kristen Stewart.

Deadline report that this new ‘Jumanji’ has been entrusted to the perhaps unexpected candidate of Jake Kasdan, director of ‘Bad Teacher’ and ‘Sex Tape.’

However, despite his ribald comedy work Kasdan does have a certain blockbuster heritage, as he’s the son of Lawrence Kasdan, screenwriter of ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,’ ‘The Empire Strikes Back,’ ‘Return of the Jedi’ and ‘The Force Awakens.’

While described as a ‘reboot’ (or, on IMDb, as a ‘re-imagining’), it’s unclear whether this new ‘Jumanji’ will directly retread the original story with the same characters, or see a whole new ensemble unwittingly sit down to play the most dangerous game.

Either way, the script is from Scott Rosenberg (whose long CV includes ‘Con Air,’ ‘High Fidelity’ and ’Pain and Gain’) and Jeff Pinkner (TV’s ‘Lost,’ ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2′).

No casting has been announced as of yet.

‘Jumanji’ is scheduled to hit UK cinemas on 3 February 2017.

Picture Credit: Sony, WENN

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