Jack Black and Paul Rudd get into more trouble than they expected in the trailer for Sony’s comedy reboot of Anaconda.
In December 2024, Jack Black and Paul Rudd teased the movie in a fun video from the set. It’s a fresh reimagining of Jennifer Lopez’s 1997 snake-horror film Anaconda. Black said in the footage, “There’s gonna be a big f***ing snake, and it’s gonna rip.”
According to sources, the original, which also starred Owen Wilson, Jon Voight, and Ice Cube, earned $16.6 million in its opening weekend and went on to gross $136.9 million worldwide.
Tom Gormican, a well-known writer and producer, will release his new take on the 1997 cult classic in theaters on December 25, 2025, just in time for the holidays.
The story is about Doug (Jack Black) and Griff (Paul Rudd), best friends since childhood, who have always wanted to remake their favorite movie, Anaconda. During a midlife crisis, they finally decide to go for it and travel to the Amazon to start filming. But their fun project takes a dangerous turn when a real giant anaconda shows up, turning their comedy into a fight for survival. The movie they dreamed of making could end up costing them their lives.
The trailer offers a first look at their wild adventure. It begins with Griff opening the door to Doug, who says he “doesn’t want to wait” and insists it’s time to reboot Anaconda. The pair discover it will cost $2.5 million to make the movie, but the bank only gives them a $9400 loan. Undeterred, they set off with a small crew, a riverboat, a snake handler, and a real snake.
Things escalate after their rented snake dies early on, Doug and Griff head into the jungle to find another—only to meet the real thing. Soon, they are being hunted by a massive anaconda. At one point, Doug appears dead, but in the trailer’s final scene, he comes back to life and runs with a dead pig over his shoulders while the huge snake chases him.
In another trailer moment, Paul Rudd says about the remake, “We’re gonna shoot it indie style, one and done.” Jack Black also jokes, “This is Anaconda, and we no longer have a snake for our snake movie. We have to go out in the jungle and find another one.”
The film also features Steve Zahn, Thandiwe Newton, Daniela Melchior, and Selton Mello. Zahn has appeared in HBO’s The White Lotus (streams on Max), Joy Ride (2001) and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017). Newton is known for Westworld, also appeared in Wednesday season 2 which is streamed on Netflix, as well as Mission Impossible II (2000) and Crash (2004). Talking about the film, Zahn remarked, “I fucked up so many takes laughing at these guys. Dream job”
It is produced by Brad Fuller, Andrew Form, Kevin Etten, and Tom Gormican, who also directed and co-wrote the script with Etten. Gormican is best known for writing That Awkward Moment (2014) and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022), which he co-wrote with Kevin Etten.
Jack Black and Paul Rudd expressed that they joined Anaconda partly because of Gormican and Etten’s work on The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.
Rudd said, “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 agreed to this by adding, “Gormican and Etten ‘brought that same meta magic energy to this script and production.’”