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Look out for hippos and keep your eyes peeled for the backside of water as today Disney officially announced progress on and stars of the long-rumored movie based off of the classic Disneyland “Jungle Cruise” attraction.
Here’s Disney’s official statement on the upcoming film:
The Walt Disney Studios is excited to be in development with Mandeville Films and writer Roger S.H. Schulman on a feature film based on the Jungle Cruise, one of the most iconic attractions in Disney theme park history. The film will pair up Tim Allen and Tom Hanks in their first live-action project, after their previous collaborations in the Toy Story trilogy.‬
The voices of Woody and Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story series will unite to presumably sail through jungle rivers, though the movie’s plot has not yet been released (or possibly even decided upon).
Schulman previously wrote on the popular projects Shrek, Pee-wee’s Playhouse, and a number of Disney animated sequels including The Jungle Book 2, Mulan II, and Bambi II.
The Jungle Cruise ride, loosely inspired by the 1951 Humphrey Bogart film The African Queen (but with a tongue-in-cheek twist), can be found at the original Disneyland park in Anaheim, Calif. as well as many other Disney parks throughout the world. This attraction-into-movie follows similar efforts for The Country Bears, The Haunted Mansion, and Pirates of the Caribbean attractions.
The Pirates of the Caribbean film series of three (soon to be four) films more than made up for the lackluster performance of the other two, which has prompted Disney to continue turning rides into films. Jon Favreau (Iron Man) is set to direct a movie simply called “Magic Kingdom” about the entire theme park, though details are scarce for that film as well. Guillermo del Toro is also developing a new movie based on The Haunted Mansion, with the hopes of bettering what was a mostly-panned original film.
The Jungle Cruise was most recently featured in pop culture by “Weird Al” Yankovic, who sung about an acting hopeful-turned-Disneyland employee in “Skipper Dan.” (In July 2010, we interviewed Yankovic about his song and the Jungle Cruise.) Given the Jungle Cruise attraction’s comedy-based approach, delivered by its skippers, it’s likely Hanks and Allen will be hamming it up when the film finally hits the big screen.
