Jack Black and Paul Rudd may reboot Anaconda as a meta horror-comedy

This Anaconda don’t want none unless you’ve got—well, you get it. After the 1997 Anaconda helped launch Jennifer Lopez’s career, a new version is about to go A-list again. But this isn’t your mother’s Anaconda. No, this one’s going to be a meta horror-comedy from Tom Gormican (director and co-writer of The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent), potentially starring Paul Rudd and Jack Black, according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

Per the outlet, “the new story involves a group of friends facing mid-life crises who are remaking their favorite movie from their youth. They head to the rainforest, only to find themselves in a fight for their lives against natural disasters, giant snakes and violent criminals.” Rudd and Black are rumored to play “an erstwhile director, a man stuck in his job as a wedding videographer” and “an actor who did a stint on a cop show but sees his Hollywood dreams slipping further and further away.” THR‘s sources are unclear on which star is playing which role, but they’re reportedly still in early talks to sign on at the moment. 

THR reports that this project has been kicking around since early 2023 “and has gone through many rewrites as the filmmaker and Columbia tried to find the right balance of tones.” Gormican wrote this script with his Massive Talent co-writer Kevin Etten, both of whom were recently credited as writers on Netflix’s Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. Meanwhile, the Anaconda series’ last entry was a Syfy TV movie crossover with the gator-based Lake Placid series, aptly named Lake Placid Vs. Anaconda. In a Hollywood hungry for established IP, Anaconda is a property primed for a reboot. At least this one has an interesting, self-referential spin rather than trying to do a straight remake. Plenty of people will sign up just to see the reunion of John Lennon and Paul McCartney from Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, so there could be something here!