Dwayne Johnson’s ‘Jumanji 2’ Not A Reboot

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was recently in the news for his feud with Fast 8 co-star Vin Diesel. Now, the former wrestler has shed some light on his next project, Jumanji 2.

After finishing the shooting of Fast and Furious 8, the actor took to his Instagram handle to show his appreciation towards the Universal and the rest of his cast and crew. Along with the appreciation message, Johnson stated that two weeks from now, he is going to team up with Kevin Hart and Jack Black for the filming of Jumanji.

“For the record we are NOT making a reboot, but rather a continuation of the awesome JUMANJI story,” he further added.

In April, Johnson revealed the news of his involvement in the project.

“It’s official. We’ll produce and deliver to a whole new generation a title that I love and is one of my favs: There’s games you play for fun…then there’s games that change your life. Jumanji.”

At the same time, even Ride Along star Hart talked about his involvement in the project. In his earlier interview with Entertainment Weekly, he stated that along with The Rock, they are doing a remake that apparently has no weak points.

“Jumanji was an amazing film — rest in peace to Robin Williams. So we’re not trying to recreate the movie that people may be familiar with, we’re trying to modernize it, for those people who don’t know what Jumanji is, in a clever, unique way.”

Released in 1995, Jumanji was an adaptation of the 1981 children’s book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg. Written by Greg Taylor, Jim Strain and Jonathan, the adventure fantasy film featured an ensemble cast of Williams, Kirsten Dunst, Bradley Pierce, David Alan Grier, Bonnie Hunt and Jonathan Hyde.

The story centered on a 12-year-old Alan Parrish, who gets trapped in a board game while playing with his friend Sarah Whittle in 1969. Twenty-six years later, when siblings Peter and Judy Shepherd finds the game and begins playing it, they release the now-adult Alan from the board game.

After tracking down Sarah, all four tries their best to finish the game in order to reverse all the chaos created by the game in their city.

Directed by Joe Johnston, Jumanji was made from a budget of $65 million and it earned more than $262 million at the box-office.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJKHQLM8AbM

Well, this is not the first time when a sequel of this film is under production.

Back in 2005, a spiritual sequel, titled Zathura, was also released. The science fiction film was directed by Iron Man director, Jon Favreau. The film, however, does not mention any Jumanji material but it was marketed as such for promotional sequel with varying statements of the tagline,

“A new adventure from the world of Jumanji.”

Despite having positive reviews from the critics and the fans, the film was a box-office disaster.

On August 5, 2015, Sony Pictures Entertainment gave green light to the remake. However, E! News stated that the remake of the film was kind of insulting. Earlier this year, it was announced that Sex Tape and Bad Teacher director Jake Kasdan will direct the remake.

Fans of the first part are still in doubt whether the remake will do any justice to the original characters. Hart and Johnson are both entertaining actors and in their recently released Central Intelligence, they both have proved that they have an amazing on-screen chemistry.

The duo will definitely give altogether a new perspective to the upcoming Jumanji 2. The film is under production and will be shot in Hawaii. Now, this is yet to be seen if Dwayne Jonson and Kevin Hart vehicle will bring back the same magic that Williams created.

Fast 8 opens April 14, 2017, and Jumanji 2 is scheduled to release on July 28, 2017.

[Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images]