Emily Blunt to Star With Dwayne Johnson in Disney’s ‘Jungle Cruise’

Emily Blunt is set to star alongside Dwayne Johnson in Disney’s “Jungle Cruise,” sources tell Variety.

Jaume Collet-Serra is on board to direct the film based on the Walt Disney World ride. Oscar nominee Michael Green (“Logan”) penned the most recent draft of the script. He rewrote a screenplay by J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. The film is based on the classic theme park attraction, which operates in several Disney Parks across the globe and takes guests on a guided tour through the rivers of the world.

Disney sees the film as another major franchise in the vein of its billion dollar “Pirates of the Caribbean” series and Johnson and Collet-Serra have found time in the stars busy schedule to map out how they see this film going.

Johnson and the team see the film inspired by “The African Queen” starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn and hope to see the similar kind of chemistry with this pairing. Sources say Disney has been over the moon with early footage of Blunt in “Mary Poppins” returns and was looking for a way to keep her in the family with another potential franchise.

Johnson is coming off his monster hit “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” which just crossed the $800 million world wide box office milestone which includes $337 million at the domestic box office. The star has busy 2018 ahead of him with his tentpoles “Rampage” and “Skyscraper” both bowing this year.

John Davis and John Fox will produce via Davis Entertainment; Beau Flynn will produce with his FlynnPictureCo. banner; and Johnson, Dany Garcia, and Hiram Garcia will produce through Seven Bucks Productions. Scott Sheldon is co-producing.

“Jungle Cruise” is currently slated to go into production in May.

The film marks Blunt’s third collaboration with Disney, having previously worked on the musical “Into the Woods” and the upcoming “Mary Poppins Returns,” where she will star as the title character opposite Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Blunt can be seen next in Paramount’s supernatural horror film “A Quiet Place” opposite husband John Krasinski, who is also directing. She is repped by CAA and Sloane, Offer, Weber and Dern.

Source