Best friends forever, or until one of them gets eaten. Get ready for a hilariously good time in Anaconda, a comedy adventure starring genre superstars Jack Black and Paul Rudd. Anaconda is directed by Tom Gornican, and also stars Steve Zahn, Thandiwe Newton, Daniela Melchior and Selton Mello.
Childhood best friends Doug (Jack Black) and Griff (Paul Rudd) are going through a shared midlife crisis, pushing them into fulfilling a lifelong dream: shooting a remake of their all time favorite film: Anaconda. Heading deep into the Amazon, all bets are off once an actual giant anaconda appears, and comedy ensues as they try to escape a deadly situation.
Anaconda is the first team-up between comedy legends Paul Rudd and Jack Black, and for co-writer and director Tom Gornican, the collaboration was a long time coming. “Jack and Paul are incredible performers. We wanted to make Jack the straight man and Paul the comedy character, which is a reversal of their regular casting, to see if we could bring something fresh to the table. Jack as the emotional center; Paul as the wildcard. Those two can find the funny in any situation. Made my job much easier.”
Jack Black’s excitement about the film was palpable as soon as he read the script. ““The script for Anaconda was funny and crazy, and I was excited to work with Tom Gormican and his brain, because The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent was one of my favorite films. And … Paul Rudd was attached! I was like, ‘I want to party with these dudes!’ This was a deck full of aces.”
While Anaconda shares its name with the original film, it’s a completely different take on the film with no knowledge of the 1997 movie required. Gormican wanted to evolve handling an established IP and make it original. We thought it would be a fun and novel way to attack IP-driven films, by making a movie about a group of friends trying to make a low budget, IP-driven film,” Gormican says. “Anaconda became a great vehicle to put the characters’ lives in danger, while they put their dream of making a movie into motion. And we were fans of the fun insanity of the original film.”
Producer Brad Fuller is all in on Anaconda, which is his first comedy after producing hit horror films such as the A Quiet Place film series. He recalls Gormican and co-writer Kevin Etten pitching the film to him, and they “had a tone that no one else had come close to pitching. They had evolved Anaconda into a comedy. Tom and Kevin were not remaking a title; they were taking a title and turning it into something different and unexpected from the original.”
You’ll be laughing ‘til you’re hissing as Anaconda makes its way to Philippine theaters on January 8. Anaconda is distributed in the Philippines by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Connect with the hashtag #AnacondaMovie @columbiapicph
