The original Anaconda has something of a cult following. Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Eric Stoltz, Owen Wilson, Kari Wuhrer, and Jonathan Hyde starred in the 1997 original telling the story of a documentary team in the Amazon and their struggles against both an obsessed hunter (Jon Voight) and a huge snake.
It launched something of a franchise, with three direct-to-video releases following the movie. The film opened at No. 1 with $16.6 million in its first weekend and remained at the top spot in the following week. In total, Anaconda went on to gross $136.8 million worldwide, making it a sizable box office success collecting more than three times its $45 million budget.
It’s legendarily schlocky, featuring wonky 1990 CGI in places, but also kind of fun. Critics hated it, audiences didn’t care.
Pre-pandemic, Sony Pictures announced they were developing a reboot or reimagining of Anaconda with Evan Daugherty (Snow White and the Huntsman) to pen the script. Then last year Tom Gormican, the director of the Nicolas Cage meta film The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, came on board to replace him.
The reason for hiring a “meta” writer may now be clear. According to Jeff Sneider on The Hot Mic podcast, this new Anaconda film will go down the same route. Actors will play heightened versions of themselves as they film a new Anaconda movie on location, and things will go wrong, and get deadly.
The report says the original actors are not yet signed on, so this could go off in any direction right now.
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