Anaconda is the story of two middle-aged guys played by Paul Rudd and Jack Black who finally decide to fulfill a lifelong dream: remaking the ’90s horror film Anaconda.
When their hired anaconda dies, they go into the jungle in search of new snakes, and encounter a giant anaconda like the one in the movie Anaconda.
We already love this movie. (If you can’t see the trailer above, treat yourself to watching it here.)
The film — which carries the tagline, “it’s the movie they’re dying to remake — comes from writer-director Tom Gormican, who previously did this sort of meta bring-the-movies-to-life thing with the very funny 2022 Nicolas Cage adventure The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, which featured Cage playing himself and getting caught up in an adventure-filled faceoff with Pedro Pascal.
Anaconda also recalls the meta concept of another film in which Jack Black starred, Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder, in which a cadre of pretentious actors go to the jungle to film a war movie and quickly find themselves in the midst of very real violence.
Background on Anaconda
The new Anaconda arrives on Christmas Day — why not? — and also stars Steve Zahn, Thandiwe Newton, Daniela Melchior and Selton Mello.
In a delightful nod to Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” — featuring the line “my anaconda don’t want none unless you got buns, hon” — the new Anaconda trailer features the opening riff of the song slowed down and played over and over again, like John Williams’ theme for Stephen Spielberg’s Jaws.
May we again editorialize? Brilliant.
Intriguingly, the film has not yet been rated. So you can bet there are some interesting internal debates going on about just how graphic its snake attacks should be.
The original Anaconda, released in 1997, was directed by Luis Llosa and starred Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Jon Voight, Eric Stoltz, Jonathan Hyde, and Owen Wilson. It also had a meta aspect: It was the story of a documentary film crew seeking a giant, legendary snake which they of course eventually find.
It received so-so reviews but did well enough at the box office to become a cult classic and inspire several sequels. And many in the cast went on to become A-listers.
It also holds a proud place on our esteemed list of 12 Killer Animal Movies That Used Real Animals. Kudos, everyone.
The new film is co-written by Kevin Etten, who also co-wrote Ghosted and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, among other projects, and executive produced by Samson Mücke. It is produced by Gormican, Etten, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form.
Anaconda arrives in theaters December 25 from Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Main image: Paul Rudd and Jack Black in, you know, Anaconda.