Regarding this Disney romp, Johnson‘s big-screen backlog is a proverbial battle royal of major movies, but few are as intriguing given the pedigree of who he’s partnered with (i.e. not Vin Diesel or Jason Statham) as Jungle Cruise. Based on a Disneyland and Disney World riverboat theme park ride, this branded project is clearly designed to recreate the same lucrative ride-to-movie magic of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, but with Blunt co-starring in the film, it also looks intentionally evocative of classic Hollywood star two-handers, most notably being Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn in The African Queen (1951). Director Jaume Collet-Serra helms the ship, coming off thrillers like The Shallows and Run All Night. The Spanish director is known for thrillers such as the aforementioned The Shallows and Liam Neeson-starring actioners in 2015’s ensemble offering Run All Night, 2014’s Non-Stop and 2011’s Unknown. His earlier films include the 2009 twist-touting hit horror film Orphan, 2007 sports drama Goal II: Living the Dream and his directorial debut in the 2005 remake of horror classic House of Wax, which famously showcased a (heavily-giffed) scene in which Paris Hilton met a memorable demise. Collet-Serra’s next film will be the January 2018-scheduled mystery thriller The Commuter, which will, again, co-star Liam Neeson. Jungle Cruise will see Collet-Serra working off a script from J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. Glenn Ficara and John Requa wrote the initial script. Producers John Davis and John Fox (via Davis Entertainment), Beau Flynn (FlynnPictureCo.) Dwayne Johnson himself, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia are producing through Seven Bucks Productions. The movie was originally scheduled to release in October 2019.
Jungle Cruise Trailer
Here’s the latest trailer: And here’s the earlier one… And here’s a cute promotional video Johnson and Blunt did together where they name check Bogie and Hepburn.
Jungle Cruise Cast
Jack Whitehall will also play a key role. The character, who remains unnamed for now, will be the brother of Emily Blunt’s character. Thus, he’s likely destined to join Blunt for much of the film’s action-packed exploits with Dwayne Johnson. Whitehall, a London-born actor and comedian, has fielded comedic runs on UK television, notably on Bounty Hunters and Bad Education. Jesse Plemons will continue his onscreen antagonist Renaissance in Jungle Cruise, since he has been cast as one of the film’s villains. Indeed, Dwayne Johnson will have an “Opie dead-eyed piece of s**t” to fight in the former Breaking Bad villain and Friday Night Lights actor, Plemons, for this Disney theme park tie-in movie.
Jungle Cruise Story
Here is the official synopsis.
