‘Scream Queens’ and ‘Kingdom’ star Nick Jonas is in negotiations to join the cast of the new Jake Kasdan-directed remake of ‘Jumanji’. In addition to his TV roles, Jonas turned in an impressive performance in the film festival favorite ‘Goat’ about fraternity hazing. In recent years, he has also had recurring roles on ‘Hawaii 5-0’ and ‘Smash’ and he starred in the Disney Channel series ‘J.O.N.A.S.’ and Disney movies ‘Camp Rock’ and ‘Camp Rock 2’.
But of course, he is best known as a popular pop singer. He is currently on tour to promote his latest album ‘Last Year Was Complicated’ featuring the hit songs ‘Levels’ and ‘Closer’. It is his music career that may complicate his negotiations to appear in ‘Jumanji’.
Should things work out, Jonas will join Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart and Jack Black in the movie is based on the Cadecott Medal-winning novel by Chris Van Allsburg. An earlier adaptation, starring Robin Williams and Kirsten Dunst, was released in 1995 and became a box office hit (earning $260 million) and perennial family favorite. Unfortunately, the follow-up, ‘Zathura’ starring a young Josh Hutcherson flopped and Sony ceased producing films based on Van Allsburg’s books… at least for the time being.
Matt Tolmach and William Teitler are producing the remake, with a script by Scott Rosenberg (‘Zoo’) and Jeff Pinkner (‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’) based on a draft by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers who both worked on the scripts for ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ and ‘The LEGO Batman Movie’.
‘Jumanji’ is set to begin filming next month in Honolulu, Hawaii with a release date of July 28, 2017 targeted.
It is hoped that this ‘Jumanji’ will kickstart a new series of films based on Van Allsburg’s books. He also wrote ‘The Polar Express’ which was made into a CGI movie starring Tom Hanks which has become a holiday favorite.
Are you interested in a new version of ‘Jumanji’ with this all-star cast? Or is this another case where Hollywood needs to leave well enough alone?
Source: Deadline
