Dwayne Johnson is so busy that has more film projects going at once than we can possibly keep track of, but we try. Although, we assume that at least some of them won't actually make it all the way to the screen. However, one big project that had been MIA is now back and is apparently moving forward. We hadn't heard anything serious about Disney's Jungle Cruise movie in well over a year, but now it appears The Rock has officially closed the deal to star in, and produce, a Jungle Cruise movie which is now set to begin filming next year.
A Jungle Cruise movie has been on Disney's radar screen for years. Following the success of Pirates of the Caribbean, Disney started looking at other theme park rides for potential inspiration and the Jungle Cruise seemed to be a strong possibility. Several years ago, Tom Hanks and Tim Allen were supposed to star in the movie before The Rock was attached back in 2015. However, since then we'd heard very little and with all the other active projects that The People's Champion had going on, it seemed this one was more than likely dead.
However, The Hollywood Reporter is now saying that the script, which has gone through several drafts and several writers over the last couple of years, has finally reached a point where it's solid enough that Dwayne Johnson is willing to commit to the project. What's more, it's going in the actor's next available time slot.
Dwayne Johnson is set for a big 2017. He'll see The Fate of the Furious, Baywatch, and Jumanji all release this year, and while that's going on he'll be filming Rampage and the Die Hard-esque action movie Skyscraper. However, once those projects are finished, Jungle Cruise will apparently be the next thing he makes, with a start date set for early 2018. This means that Jungle Cruise will be leapfrogging over other movies that we've known Johnson was already attached to, like San Andreas 2, Doc Savage and Shazam/Black Adam.
Since the script has gone through so many changes we obviously don't know much of anything about what the Jungle Crusie movie will even be about. One indication back in 2015 was that the movie would take place in the 1920s, but we can't be sure that the current script is designed as a period piece. We're still expecting the movie to be an adventure film in the vein of Pirates of the Caribbean. While Disney has had trouble keeping that franchise afloat with critics, the movies have had little trouble finding box office success. Odds are they're hoping lighning will strike twice with Jungle Cruise.
A light-hearted Disney adventure starring The Rock sounds one hell of a time at the movies. Now that we know this one is moving forward we'll be very interested to see where it goes from here.
