SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses spoilers for “Anaconda,” now playing in theaters
When co-writers Tom Gormican and Kevin Etten first pitched what would become their reimagined take on the so-bad-it’s-good 1997 classic “Anaconda,” they never thought Sony would be on board with the idea.
“We went to them and said, ‘If we could make ‘The Big Chill’ becomes ‘Anaconda,’ then we’d be interested,’” said Gormican. “We expected them to laugh, [But] they bought it. It was one of those strange pitches where we’re going, ‘No, no, you guys can’t do this. You can’t.’ And they’re like, ‘We want to do this with you.’”
Premiering on Christmas, this “Anaconda,” also directed by Gormican, is not a reboot, remake or even a continuation of the original. While the ’90s reptilian horror provides a solid springboard for the film, the new “Anaconda” is something different entirely, centering not on a National Geographic crew but rather a group of life-long, middle-aged friends who head to the Amazon to shoot their own version of the original film. Stars Paul Rudd, Jack Black, Steve Zahn and Thandiwe Newton soon find themselves fighting for survival against the world’s largest snake (which is even larger this time around, thanks to CGI). And while it definitely has nods to its predecessor, it was important to Gormican to toe the line carefully.
“These are two stories about taking a boat up the river, right?” said Gormican. “A snake basically slithers on land or in the water. It can either wrap around you or bite you. So you’re locked into the ways that it kills, and you’re locked into a structure of going from point A to point B, which is what this shares with the original story…I have a lot of reverence for the original. I love what they did. [But] I didn’t want to play in that sandbox.”
Instead, they upped the comedic ante, creating what Gormican describes as a “buddy movie that becomes an adventure film that becomes an action film that becomes a horror film.” (He cites “City Slickers” and “American Movie” as points of inspiration). “Audiences are just tired of not seeing original stories,” he explained. “It’s been a decade of, ‘Here’s some remakes of stuff that you used to love,’ and there’s a limit to people’s nostalgia.”
This “Anaconda” is also full of meta elements that poke fun of Hollywood itself. Famously charismatic Rudd plays a struggling actor in Los Angeles, and the rag-tag group runs into a “real” Sony crew filming a reboot of “Anaconda” who joke about Hollywood having “no new ideas.” The characters also stumble upon original “Anaconda” star Ice Cube, who is on the studio’s snake-destroyed set to reprise his role. When they ask how the writers planned to kill the reptile in their movie, he responds they never finished the script.
“It was mirroring exactly what was happening,” said Gormican, who lost two final locations while filming in Australia — the first being a factory that then went on strike, and the second being a boatyard the crew had created, only for it to get destroyed by a cyclone. Parts of the latter set actually made it into the movie as they pivoted to end the film using what was left of it: “We went in and made it look [purposefully] destroyed,” explained Gormican. “And we just said it was a snake.”
And while “Anaconda” doesn’t get too sentimental over its source material, it does capitalize on a few familiar faces. In addition to Ice Cube, Jennifer Lopez also has a cameo in the film, where the two actors play themselves. “We were always thinking that it would be fun to have the surviving members,” said Gormican, especially once they decided the friends would run into the filming of the reboot. “So we just kept reaching out.” Ultimately, both joined in, giving the film their “stamp of approval.” And, yes, they considered bringing back other “Anaconda” actors, though it ended up not making sense to: “If they died in the original, would they be back at the remake if their character was dead?”
Above all else, with this new “Anaconda,” Gormican was dedicated to creating a film that felt like fun.
“The thing that I’ve been missing in my cinema-going experience is a movie for everyone, that plays in a massively fun, adventurous way,” said Gormican. “People lament the loss of the communal feeling of being at a comedy together. And I hope that people get a chance to experience that in this film, and maybe ignite something in a younger generation where they go, ‘Oh, shit. That’s actually something we love to do.’”
