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Sony is looking to the future by also look to the past. That is the sense we are getting when reading Columbia head Doug Belgrad’s recent interview with THR. In addition to confirming that the studio is working on a fourth Men in Black movie, he said something a bit more shocking in regards to their plans to strengthen their family lineup: They are going to reimagine Jumanji.
Jumanji of course is the book about a jungle-esque board game that has very real consequences. The studio actually made it into a movie 17 years ago with Bonnie Hunt and Robin Williams. For the most part though it was Robin William’s movie and that translated into $263 million in global box office revenue. The reviews were not that good, but the property in itself was a biggie which explains why Sony is hot for round two.
To get into specifics, Belgrade said the following to THR when asked about any areas they would like to strengthen:
Michael has created a bit of a mandate to do more in the family space. It involves animation, hybrid and live action. Michael’s impact on the studio is great; he helped reel in The Smurfs property. We’re going to try and reimagine Jumanji and update it for the present.
It may not be a huge coincidence that The Smurfs was brought up here. The movie was met with scathing criticism by reviewers the world over, but the big screen adaptation still found over $500 million worldwide. What does this mean? More live-action, animation hybrids and that looks to be exactly what Sony will be doing with Jumanji. How that will work out no one quite knows yet (not even them,) but the kicker here is that they will definitely leave the door open for sequels because that is just how things are done nowadays.
