Before there was Snakes on a Plane, there was Anaconda. The infamous 1997 star-studded horror flick has a notorious reputation, even if you’ve never seen it. In the late 1990s, Anaconda was in a similar league of late-night VHS watch parties, a movie like the 1995 horror version of Rumpelstiltskin in which you laughed more than you got scared. And now, nearly 30 years after Anaconda launched a gory horror franchise about massive snakes eating people, its delicious combination of cheesiness plus genuine thrills is about to reemerge from the shallow waters of the past.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, both Jack Black and Paul Rudd are in talks to star in a reimagining of Anaconda. This version is said to be co-written by Tom Gormican and directed by Kevin Etten, who recently co-wrote Beverly Hills Cops: Axel F. Clearly, with this group of people involved, a new take on Anaconda will not be some kind of hardcore gritty reboot. You don’t hire Black, Rudd, and Gormican (the latter co-wrote The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent with Etten) if you intend to make a straightforward remake of a movie about a murderous snake.
In fact, it sounds like a meta-fictional element will be central to the premise. According to THR’s sources:
“The new story involves a group of friends facing mid-life crises who are remaking their favorite movie from their youth. They head to the rainforest, only to find themselves in a fight for their lives against natural disasters, giant snakes, and violent criminals.”
All of this suggests this Anaconda will be more overtly self-aware than the 1997 original. Whether or not this is the right way to go — winking at the audience more obliviously — is unclear. While there is a camp element to the 1997 Anaconda, there are still moments where it really feels like you’re supposed to be worried about this very obviously not-real snake. Elder millennials will likely be in on the joke of a newly rebooted, somewhat ironic Anaconda. But the younger generations might be denied the utterly confusing, and charming, mishmash of tones that the original delivered. In other words, you can make fun of Anaconda all you want, but this is one snake that will never fully be able to devour its own hilarious tale.
