Anaconda

They swapped parts. Then a cyclone ate the ending.

Jack Black told his agent to say yes before he read a page. Paul Rudd was already on Tom Gormican's snake comedy, and Gormican had just made The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. "The fact that Paul Rudd was attached was like, oh dude, this is a slam dunk," Black told The Hollywood Reporter at the Los Angeles premiere. The agent made him read it anyway. He still called the script a slam dunk.

This is the 2025 Columbia picture, not the 1997 Jennifer Lopez tank movie. Gormican and Kevin Etten pitched Sony a meta joke. Amateur friends try to remake the cult snake film and walk into a real one. Sony had been developing a straight reboot with Evan Daugherty. Gormican said they first told the studio no. Then they came back with "The Big Chill becomes Anaconda." They expected a pass. Sony said yes. Jack Black plays wedding videographer Doug. Paul Rudd plays failed actor Griff. Steve Zahn, Thandiwe Newton, Daniela Melchior, and Selton Mello fill the boat. Ice Cube and Lopez, survivors of the original, show up as themselves. Budget sat near $45 million. Christmas Day 2025 put it fifth in a crowded frame. Worldwide take landed around $135 million. Netflix took the U.S. window on March 25, 2026. , ,

Rudd had Black's job first.

Wikipedia's production notes say Rudd was originally cast as Doug. When Black signed, they swapped at Black's insistence. Gormican wanted the reverse of their usual types. Black as the emotional center. Rudd as the loose-cannon failed actor hanging on too tight. Empire caught them on the near-miss. They almost met at a High Fidelity audition. Rudd even told Stephen Frears to look at Black for Barry. "This has been a long time coming," Black said. "Me and Paul have been in a mutual-admiration society for decades." ^[2],

Queensland stood in for the Amazon. Rudd went chest-deep in a night swamp on the Gold Coast. "It was at night in a swamp and it was terrifying," he told News.com.au. Even the driver, he said, could not believe he went in. Gormican had a different problem between takes. "Jack is belting out a song and then Paul is coming in and Steve is singing. At a certain point, Paul was playing drums. Selton Mello, our Brazilian actor, was on the guitar, and I was like, I don't even know what this is but it's not directing." Mello later posted wrap photos from the boat and called Rudd and Black two amazing people, while insisting the movie is neither remake nor sequel. Sony's own one-sheet still yelled THIS IS NOT A REBOOT. , ^[1], ^[2]

The weather department did the third act.

They lost the original finale location to Queensland rain and rewrote for an abandoned shipyard. Then Cyclone Alfred wrecked the new set. Gormican told ScreenRant they had painted the ships to look destroyed in the movie. "Soon as we finished scrambling to get this done, the first cyclone in 50 years hit Australia and destroyed the set. So, it was actually destroyed." They rewrote again. A character in the film asks how the writers handled the third act. The answer is they never finished the script. "That was us writing about us," Gormican said.

Lopez's uncredited mid-credits bit was the last thing they shot, on November 17, 2025, after test audiences wanted her. Ice Cube's cameo leaked a week before opening. Critics split. Rotten Tomatoes sat at 48 percent. CinemaScore was a B. The trailer still sells the joke. Two guys, a camera, and a snake that does not care about their childhood dream. ^[2], ^[8]