After being announced at the D23 Expo as the voice of Maui in the upcoming animated movie, “Moana,” The Hollywood Reporter today announced that Disney has tapped Johnson to star in the movie adaption of the classic Disney theme park attraction, “Jungle Cruise”.
According to The Hollywood Reporter:
Dwayne Johnson is teaming up with Disney to translate a theme park ride, Jungle Cruise, to the big-screen.
Johnson’s involvement once again puts the Jungle boat back into the water after a multi-year dry-dock phase.
Disney has been trying to mount a movie based on the popular ride since at least 2004, during the years when the success of The Pirates of the Caribbean set sail many ride-based projects.
The studio last tried to develop the project as a starring vehicle for Tom Hanks and Tim Allen in early 2011 with writer Roger S.H. Schulman.
While the Hanks-Allen iteration was to have been set in modern times, the new take brings the project back to its’ period roots with even the intent to harken Cruise to movies such as The African Queen, the 1951 classic starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn adventure movie that was one of the original inspirations for the ride.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter