Paul Rudd & Jack Black Could Join New Anaconda Movie Cast

Paul Rudd and Jack Black may appear in a new Anaconda movie if the latest industry speculations are to be believed. A reimagined take on the original horror thriller is reportedly in development at Sony, and the film may be close to finding its leads.

Sony reportedly wants Paul Rudd and Jack Black for Anaconda movie cast

Ant-Man actor Paul Rudd, who led Sony’s last two Ghostbusters movies, and Kung Fu Panda star Jack Black, who is Sony’s Jumanji regular, are reportedly in early talks to join the studio’s new take on Anaconda. Familiar X (formerly Twitter) scooper MyTimeToShineHello was the first to break the news.

Brad Fuller and Andrew Form will produce the film through their company, Fully Formed Entertainment, as per Deadline. Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten, known for the 2022 action comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, developed the script, with Gormican purportedly intending to helm the production. He reportedly came on board as a director in 2023. The project is said to be a reimagining rather than a remake or a sequel.

Reportedly, an Anaconda reboot went into development at Sony Columbia Pictures in early 2020, with Evan Daugherty (Tomb Raider and Snow White and the Huntsman) attached to the project as the writer. But, it’s unclear whether it’s the same project as the one Sony is developing now.

The original Anaconda film came out in 1997. Luis Llosa directed the movie from a script by Hans Bauer, Jack Epps Jr., and Jim Cash. It features a stellar cast of Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Jon Voight, and Owen Wilson. The plot revolves around a documentary film crew that while navigating in the Amazon rainforest encounters a Paraguayan snake hunter and the giant green anaconda he is after. While the movie has a 41% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it managed to earn around $136.8 million at the global box office against a $45 million budget.

This commercial success led to the development of the 2004 standalone theatrical sequel, Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid. Its TV sequels — Anaconda 3: Offspring (2008) and Anacondas: Trail of Blood (2009) — came afterward. A crossover with the Lake Placid film series, Lake Placid vs. Anaconda, came out as well in 2015. There is also a Chinese remake, titled Anaconda, which premiered in China in March 2024.