Karen Gillan has provided a brief update on Jumanji 2, insisting that the writers for the sequel are taking their time “to figure out how to approach it.”
I recently had the chance to speak to Gillan about her directorial debut “The Party’s Just Beginning,” but at the end of our discussion I asked for a quick update on the follow-up to the smash hit action adventure.
“From what I have gathered the writers are taking their time to figure out how to approach it. Which is great. They’re appreciating that quality matters. But, no, I haven’t really heard anything at all. So I am just as intrigued as everyone else.”
The huge success of “Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle” took everyone by surprise.
The film was alway expected to take in quite a bit of money, since it brought together Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Karen Gillan for the family friendly adventure, which also promised to tap into what made the original Robin Williams’ film so beloved.
But no-one expected “Welcome To The Jungle” to get anywhere near its $950.7 million gross, which earlier this week made it the highest grossing film in the history of Sony Pictures. During our chat Gillan also divulged her own theory on why the film connected with such a large audience.
“Here’s my theory, which I just thought about last night. Because today, or last night, it just became Sony’s highest grossing film ever.”
“I think it is just all the elements coming together. It is just lightning in a bottle. The right producer chose the right director who had the right writers write the right words for the right actors who delivered to the right audience at the right time. Every element came together.”
“It is exciting because people are responding to it because it is a good movie. It is fun. Which excites me because I don’t think a film can be fueled purely by star power and nor should it.”
“It’s exciting when an audience goes this is good quality so we will respond to it. Rather than any sort of gimmick or casting. Quality matters and that is a good state to be in.”
Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan will all reprise their roles in the “Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle” sequel, while Jake Kasdan will direct the sequel again, and Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinker will write the script.
Meanwhile, Karen Gillan’s debut as a writer and director on “The Party’s Just Beginning,“ a surreal dark comedy drama that revolves around Liusaidh, also played by Gillan, as she struggles to deal with the suicide of her best friend, will premiere and screen at the Tribeca Film Festival between April 22 and April 26.
