Three and a half years ago, Sony’s Columbia Pictures announced that they were developing a reboot / reimagining of the 1997 “nature run amok” thriller Anaconda (watch it HERE), with the intention of “taking what was a simple and relatively cheap programmer with a B-movie concept and event-izing it in scope and budget”. They’re obviously sticking with the idea of going big with this one, because reliable “inside scoop” provider Daniel Richtman has heard that the lead roles have been offered to Paul Rudd and Pedro Pascal!
We have to take this as a RUMOR for right now, since there hasn’t been any sort of official confirmation regarding this news, but it does make sense. Paul Rudd stars in Sony’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife and its upcoming sequel, so of course they’d want to keep working with him on their event-sized Anaconda movie. And a few months ago, we heard that Tom Gormican would be directing the film as his follow-up to the well-received action comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, which starred Nicolas Cage and Pedro Pascal. So he wants to continue working with Pascal, whose popularity is extremely high these days thanks to the likes of The Last of Us and The Mandalorian.
An Anaconda reboot starring Rudd and Pascal isn’t something I ever imagined would be coming down the line, but it could happen.
When this project was first announced, it was said that Evan Daugherty, whose credits include Snow White and the Huntsman, Divergent, and Tomb Raider, was working on the script. It’s not clear if Daugherty is still involved.
The original Anaconda was directed by Luis Llosa from a script by Hans Bauer, Jim Cash, and Jack Epps Jr. It had the following synopsis: Filmmaker Terri Flores is traveling deep in the Amazon jungle looking for a forgotten tribe. Terri and her crew, which includes an anthropologist and a cameraman, come across Paul, who is stranded on the riverbank. He offers to help them find the tribe, but his secretive behavior puts everyone on edge. They realize too late that he’s using them to find a legendary anaconda that’s worth a fortune — if they can catch it. That one already had an impressive cast list that included Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Jon Voight, Eric Stoltz, Jonathan Hyde, Owen Wilson, Kari Wuhrer, Vincent Castellanos, and Danny Trejo.
Would you like to see a new Anaconda that stars Paul Rudd and Pedro Pascal? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.