The creators of ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’ wanted to "honour" the original film with their version.
Director Jake Kasdan didn’t feel it was right to do an "out-and-out remake" and so decided to create something that would "hold up" on its own and capture the magic of the original 1995 film.
He said: "Jumanji is the kind of movie that I think people shouldn’t out-and-out remake. To me, a big part of its power is in the unique elements of its original execution. Within that, I think there’s this central idea and mythology that’s mysterious, but powerful, and commands a powerful part of the imagination.
"I was a fan of the original movie, and I felt like this [Jumanji update] really honoured it, and included a lot of the stuff that I loved about the original movie, but did it in a really new way. It really holds up. You go back and watch it – it’s a very unusual and original kid’s movie. It’s unusually scary and magical, in a way that’s different from a lot of other magical kid’s movies."
And producer Matt Tolmach felt inspired to work on the film – which stars the likes of Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black and Kevin Hart – after seeing how the book left his son "mesmerised".
Speaking at CinemaCon, where the team also unveiled a five-minute clip from the movie, Tolmach added: "I was literally home with my kid one day, reading the Chris Van Allsburg book to him, and watching him be mesmerised and transported by it.
"I always thought there was this incredible idea within the movie – and obviously, its DNA going back to the book – that there was this life within the game. What if I could just live in there, and leave this world with all of its troubles and anxieties and all of that, and just go into this game?"
‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’ is slated for release on December 22, 2017.
New Jumanji movie will honour the original
