"It will take your breath away," boasted the poster for ANACONDA, the late '90s creature feature which starred Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, and Jon Voight; Well, that's one way of putting it. The original film followed a documentary crew in the Amazon seeking to locate a long-lost tribe, but they soon come across a snake hunter (Voight) who takes over the expedition, all while a giant anaconda stalks the group and takes them out one at a time. The film went on to spawn a sequel, ANACONDAS: THE HUNT FOR THE BLOOD ORCHID, as well as several direct-to-video installments, such as ANACONDA 3: OFFSPRING, ANACONDAS: TRAIL OF BLOOD, and LAKE PLACID VS. ANACONDA.
The franchise may be set to return to the big-screen as THR has reported that Sony's Columbia Pictures is developing a new take on the original film and have hired Evan Daugherty, best known for SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN, DIVERGENT, and TOMB RAIDER, with writing the script. The franchise is apparently one of the most profitable in Sony's library (which surprised me), so you can understand why they're looking to bring it back. THR's sources have said that the project won't be a remake or a sequel, but rather a reimagining, with the studio "aiming to take what was a simple and relatively cheap programmer with a B-movie concept and eventize it in scope and budget," similar to Jon Turteltaub's THE MEG. Although I give it a hard time, I actually have a lot of fun with ANACONDA; after all, is there any other film in which Jon Voight is regurgitated by a giant snake? I thought not.