Jungle Cruise (film)

Jungle Cruise is an upcoming American adventure film based on the Disney theme park attraction of the same name. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, the film will star Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Jack Whitehall, Édgar Ramírez, Jesse Plemons and Paul Giamatti, and is set for release on July 24, 2020, by Walt Disney Pictures.

Premise
Set in the 1930s during the Great Depression, a riverboat captain named Frank takes a scientist and his sister on a mission into a jungle to find a tree believed to possess healing powers. All the while, the trio must fight against dangerous wild animals, and a competing German expedition.

Cast

 * Dwayne Johnson as Frank, a riverboat captain.
 * Emily Blunt as Lily Houghton, a scientist searching for a tree’s magical cure.
 * Jack Whitehall as McGregor Houghton, Lily’s brother.
 * Édgar Ramírez, an unnamed villain
 * Jesse Plemons
 * Paul Giamatti
 * Andy Nyman as Sir James Hobbs-Cunningham
 * Quim Gutiérrez
 * Veronica Falcon
 * Dani Rovira
 * Simone Lockhart as Anna

Development
In September 2006, it was announced that Jungle Cruise would be developed for Mandeville Films, with a script by Josh Goldstein & John Norville, rewritten by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, loosely inspired by the theme park attraction of the same name. Details have not been forthcoming, apart from confirmation that the film is set in the twentieth century.

In February 2011, it was announced that Toy Story stars Tom Hanks and Tim Allen would star in the long-gestating film, with a script to be written by Roger S. H. Schulman.

In December 2018, it was reported that actor Jack Whitehall's character would be homosexual and would have a coming out scene in the film with Dwayne Johnson. This would be the second incidence of a gay character in a Disney film, the first being Le Fou, portrayed by Josh Gad, in the 2017 live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. There was some backlash over the report, with a few expressing outrage over a straight man being cast as a "camp" gay character.

Casting
On August 9, 2015, it was announced that Walt Disney Pictures was redeveloping its film adaptation based on Jungle Cruises, to star Dwayne Johnson. The script will be written by John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, and the film will be produced by John Davis and John Fox. The film is intended to hark back to its period roots. In April 2017, Johnson expressed his interest in having Patty Jenkins helm the project. In July 2017, Jaume Collet-Serra was announced as the director of the film, dropping out of Suicide Squad 2 in order to do so.

In January 2018, Emily Blunt joined the cast. That same month, Michael Green was reported to have rewritten the script, previously worked on by Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne. In March 2018, Jack Whitehall joined the cast to portray the brother of Blunt’s character, although there was some social media backlash about a straight actor playing a "camp gay character". In April 2018, Édgar Ramírez and Jesse Plemons joined the cast to portray villains with the former being "a man with a conquistador background". In May 2018, Paul Giamatti joined the cast to portray a “crusty harbormaster.” In June 2018, Quim Gutiérrez joined the cast to portray one of the villains.

Filming
Principal photography began on May 14, 2018, in Hawaii. Filming wrapped on September 14.

Post-production
Industrial Light & Magic and Weta Digital will be providing the effects for the film.

Release
Jungle Cruise is set to be released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures on July 24, 2020. The film was originally scheduled to be released on October 11, 2019, but on October 19, 2018, Johnson announced on behalf of Disney that the film had been delayed to 2020.