Following their collaboration on the disaster hit San Andreas, acclaimed actor Paul Giamatti (Sideways, Straight Outta Compton, Billions) is reteaming with Dwayne Johnson for the upcoming movie adaptation of Disney’s Jungle Cruise ride, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Giamatti is set to play a crusty harbormaster in the film, which also stars Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place) and Jack Whitehall (The Bad Education Movie).
In Jungle Cruise, Johnson plays a boat captain who takes sister (Blunt) and her brother (Whitehall) on a mission to find a tree believed to possess healing powers. Wild animals and a competing expedition figure into the proceedings. Edgar Ramirez (The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story) is said to be one of the movie’s villains, a character with a conquistador background who is leading a competing German expedition alongside the baddie played by Jesse Plemons (Game Night).
Jungle Cruise‘s script by J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay (Star Trek Beyond) was recently rewritten by Michael Green (Logan, Blade Runner 2049). Johnson is set to produce alongside his Seven Bucks Productions partners Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia, as well as frequent collaborator Beau Flynn (San Andreas, Baywatch) of Flynn Picture Co. John Davis and John Fox of Davis Entertainment will also produce.
Jungle Cruise will join the ranks of films Disney has created based on their theme park attractions, including The Country Bears, The Haunted Mansion, Mission to Mars, Tomorrowland, and the most popular, Pirates of the Caribbean. Disney plans to develop the film as a possible franchise in the same vein as Pirates of the Caribbean. The film is slated to begin production in May and will film through the summer.
(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
