Despite being released in 1997 to mixed reviews, Anaconda—which starred Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Jon Voight, Eric Stoltz, Jonathan Hyde, and Owen Wilson—was a box office hit and has become a cult classic in the decades since.
Now, it's being rebooted with Paul Rudd (Ant-Man) and Jack Black (A Minecraft Movie) playing lifelong best friends Doug and Griff, who have "always dreamed of remaking their all-time favourite movie: the cinematic 'classic,' Anaconda."
This meta reboot will see the duo head to the Amazon to make their dream a reality. However, as the synopsis explains, "things get real when an actual giant anaconda appears, turning their comically chaotic movie set into a deadly situation. The movie they're dying to make? It might just get them killed."
Anaconda sounds like a fun ride, and Rudd and Black will be joined by Thandiwe Newton, Daniela Melchior, Selton Mello, and Steve Zahn.
"It's a genuine kick in the ass," Rudd says of the movie, which is helmed by director Tom Gormican, who was behind 2022's very-meta The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. "It was a clever script, and the meta angles of it were appealing to me. I was a big fan of The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, and the tone of this and that seemed to live in the same world."
Black says it was "so fun" to team up with Rudd, explaining, "It was the main reason I wanted to do the movie. I’m a huge fan of Paul’s work. Dude is f***ing hilarious. And a sweet pea to boot!" He also teased that Anaconda is an "exciting mix of comedy and horror."
Rudd adds, "I love Jack and was thrilled to get to do this with him. We've done a few little things in the past, and to get to really work together for months like this was fantastic."
A trailer for the movie is expected to be released imminently, but some first-look stills from Anaconda have also been shared by PEOPLE today. There's no sign of the titular beast as of now, so we'd bet on that surprise being saved for somewhere down the line.
Anaconda arrives in theaters on December 25.