Despite neither carrying a film with more than a 70% on Rotten Tomatoes, Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart are seen as big box office draws. (That’s not counting the Fast and Furious films or Top Five, which we’ll call ensembles.) Getting two stars like that on screen together is a studio’s dream. With their first joint project, Central Intelligence, dropping on June 17th, the duo are reportedly already in talks for their next movie partnership; Variety reports that Johnson and Hart are in early discussions to join Sony’s forthcoming Jumanji remake.
Update – Friday, April 22nd at 1:15 p.m.: The Rock has confirmed his participation in Jumanji.
The one potential holdup in the pairing could be their schedules. Johnson in particular has a busy docket for the next few months, but with New Line reportedly pushing their adaptation of the video game Rampage back, there could be space for Jumanji after he films Fast 8 this summer.
While the original was filled with heart-pounding action with Robin Williams providing family-friendly levity, this remake is reportedly going in a much more comedic direction. Hart’s over-the-top everyman persona and Johnson’s big-bodied affability would play well into that lighter sort of a direction.
Whoever ends up being cast, Jake Kasdan (Freaks and Greeks, New Girl) will direct the film from a script by Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner. The writers reworked an earlier draft by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, writers of the original Jumanji. William Teitler and Matt Tolmach will produce alongside executive producers Ted Field, Mike Weber and Van Allsburg. Production is scheduled to begin in August with a July 28th, 2017 target release date.
