Jaume Collet-Serra is having second thoughts about being branded with the scarlet “S” of Suicide Squad 2. Deadline reports that the Spanish director, who was Warner Bros.’ first choice for the sequel to its critically hated, fanboy-approved supervillain ensemble piece, has taken himself out of the running for the gig. Instead, he’s signed on with Disney to direct Jungle Cruise, the studio’s attempt to replicate the success of the Indiana Jones and Pirates Of The Caribbean franchises basically by combining the two. Like Pirates, it’s based on a theme-park ride, and like Indiana Jones, it stars a bankable leading man, in this case Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, in a globe-trotting adventurer role.
Collet-Serra, who specializes in churning out low-risk, high-reward B-movie fare like last summer’s shark flick The Shallows, reportedly thought that Jungle Cruise gave him more of an opportunity to leave his mark as a director, which tells you a lot about the creative state of blockbuster filmmaking at the moment. Collet-Serra is also currently attached to direct Waco for Annapurna, but that’s fine, given that Johnson has approximately 17 projects on his plate at any given moment.