DWAYNE JOHNSON OFFICIALLY STARRING IN ‘JUMANJI’ REMAKE

It seems that not a week goes by without an announcement of a remake. The 1995 Jumanji, adapted from Chris Van Allsburg’s children’s book, was a fun and quite dark family fantasy in which two kids find and play a magical board game, releasing a man trapped for decades in it and a host of dangers that can only be stopped by finishing the game. The Robin Williams-starrer led to a sequel Zathura. Last week Sony announced that that they were going to remake it and that Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart were the leading candidates to star in the film. The other day, Johnson confirmed his involvement on Instagram.

“It’s OFFICIAL: Love this script! Big movie news that me and my canine gal Shang are excited to share;) To produce, create and deliver original properties to fans like HBO’s #ballers to this summer’s #CentralIntelligence is one of the best parts of my job. But to take great properties that are beloved worldwide like #BAYWATCH and #RAMPAGE and have the opportunity reimagine their stories in dope new ways to a whole new generation is truly an honor. It’s official. We’ll produce and deliver to a whole new generation a title that I love and is one of my all time favs: There’s games you play for fun… then there’s games that change your life. JUMANJI Working on edging up an already very good script with my @sevenbucksprod team. Up next is meeting with our producer Matt Tolmach and director Jake Kasdan. Shooting starts this fall. Promise to deliver something cool and special.. and not screw the whole damn thing up;). As always I’ll keep you posted. Casting this should be fun”

So there you have it. I guess that the only significant improvement they could make on the earlier movie is the CGI animals, some of which looked distinctly iffy even when it came out. I’m not sure that the director of Sex Tape and Bad Teacher is the right guy to helm this either, but we shall see. It’s a busy time for Johnson, who is currently starring in a Baywatch remake and is also set to play Black Adam in the DC Extended Universe movie Shazam.