'Jungle Cruise' movie starts motor - The Hollywood Reporter 9/21/06

[ALIASd]

Dis puts 'Cruise' in high gear

By Borys Kit
The Hollywood Reporter
September 21, 2006

Following the record-breaking success of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," Walt Disney Pictures is giving high-priority status to another movie project based on a Disneyland ride. "Smallville" showrunners Al Gough and Miles Millar are in negotiations to write "Jungle Cruise," an adventure movie and potential franchise that is being produced by David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman through their Mandeville Films label.

"Cruise" is based on the Disneyland ride in which parkgoers travel the jungle river guided by a riverboat skipper, encountering such wild creatures as pirhanas and gorillas during their tour. The ride was one of the 22 original attractions when the park opened in 1955.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr..._id=1003154936

[Experiment626]

Just heard this on Good Day L.A. I'm not sure how I feel about a movie on this ride. Could go either way I guess...

[ALIASd]

^Alot people said that about a 'POTC' movie too a few years ago....

[Experiment626]

Yeah. Luckily they have done very well with PotC. But unfortunately the HM movie does exist. That is what makes me skeptical about it. As long as the people who were associated with HM movie are no way near the JC movie, I think it could do well.

[Captain Rex]

This could so totally go either way. Its too early to tell now, but the potential is there.

[Yendorb]

I have never had a problem with the concept of making a movie based off of a ride. It's gone the other way for years. I don't like the idea that the movies success can cause the original ride to change. Pirates is the current example, and there was talk that if the Haunted Mansion movie would have done better, that Disney was contractually obligated to replace the current Madam Leota voice with that of the star of the movie.

It would be like re-cutting the original Star Wars to include a star tours type intergalatic travel company. (or to make Han shoot second) The ride played off of the success of the movie, to go back and change the successful movie to reflect a succesful ride would be wrong, and doing the same to a ride is wrong

[Experiment626]

Originally Posted by Yendorb

I have never had a problem with the concept of making a movie based off of a ride. It's gone the other way for years. I don't like the idea that the movies success can cause the original ride to change. Pirates is the current example, and there was talk that if the Haunted Mansion movie would have done better, that Disney was contractually obligated to replace the current Madam Leota voice with that of the star of the movie.

Thank God that movie did not do well. Can you imagine the thousands of people, all MC'ers I'm sure included storming City Hall to complain about that change? I don't think I'd be able to go on the ride anymore if Jennifer Tilly's voice was Madame Leota instead of the original voice. Just awful to think of it being true. Scary.

[cellarhound]

It's isn't going to be nearly as successfull... Unless of course Jonney Depp is a pirate in it...

Can we say, LAME IDEA?

[PeaJay18]

I think the key to the JC movie working (and the success of PotC) is to do something a bit left-field.
By making the pirates want to return treasure and Depp's "unique" performance PotC confonded expectations.
Here's hoping the Smallville guys can come up with more than a lame Indiana Jones/Mummy/Wild Thornberrys wanna-be.

[barfownz]

Any movie based on a Disney Attraction is worth seeing!

[Experiment626]

Originally Posted by barfownz

Any movie based on a Disney Attraction is worth seeing!

Yeah, but not all were good. Cough cough...Haunted Mansion...cough cough

[CA_Man_In_HI]

Let's look Disney's batting average thus far:

Mission to Mars (not sure if this was really supposed to be based off the ride, but they stole the title)....FLOP

Country Bears....FLOP

Haunted Mansion....FLOP

Pirates....Success

Why am I not optimisitic, but instead, have a rather sick feeling brewing in my stomach?

[zach1]

They announced this a long time ago, after the first Pirates movie came out. I figured it was dead since there has been no news about it for so long. This movie excites me. I think if they take it serious and not try to be goofy, like HM, it could be really fun. Also, the Gough/Millar is a great pick. They've done a good job with Smallville and did a fantastic job with Spider-Man 2.

[Aladdin]

With Pirates, you could see success written all over it months
ahead of time. (Although, even I kinda laughed at the idea
of something as successful at Indy)

With knowing who the writers were, knowing a little about the
unique storyline, and knowing who the actors were, it was bound
to be successful. Johnny Depp has ALWAYS added a unique aspect
to all his characters, add great acting by Geoffrey Rush, and (even at that time) growing appeal of Kerra and Orlando. Sure there were those critics who though pirate movies had a "Hollywood Curse". But that was just because some people were just dumb enough to lump all pirate movies in one category. Hollywood had never seen cursed pirates like this, before!

On the other had, people were dreading Eddie Murphy in the Title role of Haunted Mansion. The story was really questionable, and Jennifer Tilly. yecccckkkkk! Toss in makin g this a hokey family movie and that is just a recipe for disaster. Is there anyone who DIDN'T see that this wasn't going to have the same drawing power as a movie with Johnny, Kierra, and Orlando? DUH! Even with the terrific costumes, and great special effects, you still need a compelling story and GOOD actors! NOW, if Disney REALLY wanted to do a DECENT Haunte Mansion movie, I think it still holds great possibilities, but 1st , you have to have a decent story! THEN you have to get DECENT actors, and a good director. Hopefully they will get someone working on it so the awful Murphy Movie Memories can be excorcised immediately!

Back to this specific Topic, Absolutely YES! the Jungle Cruise has great possibilities for an Action,Adventure tongue in cheek humor movie. BUT they need 1. a DECENT STORY and 2. GREAT appealing actors!

[MasterGracey]

The article says it will be an action film, but it seems like it would obviously be a comedy-action film. Mostly comedy. And the problem with that is that we'll get something along the lines of the Haunted Mansion.

The Haunted Mansion should have never been the comedy, or rather, the type of comedy it was.

I'm just going to ignore the Country Bears - didn't bother seeing it, but from trailers and ads, it was grossly misguided.

As for the Jungle Cruise, it needs to be comedy, but it needs to be purposely cheesy, but in a way that blends the exotic locales and fun time that the Jungle Cruise is. The success of Pirates of the Caribbean not only lies in the star power of Johnny Depp with eyeliner, but in the fact that it is the absolute perfect blend of comedy and action.

If the Jungle Cruise movie wants to achieve this success, they need to find the perfect blend of comedy and action appropriate to the subject material.

And Disney needs to refrain from making and marketing the film soley to family audiences. Pirates was brilliant in that it crossed over to everybody: children, adults, families, jr high, high school, and college students.

The Jungle Cruise has the potential, but they need to find the right balance, the right actors, and the right script. Please, no more B-List Disney comedians. If Tim Allen, Eddie Murphy, or anybody in their league are picked to star, this movie will fail, fail, fail.