This “stupid sequel” to Jumanji which was supposed to take place in the White House!
Long before the reboot with Dwayne Johnson, a second part was planned. The screenwriter of the first Jumanji tells.
Yes, we almost had a Jumanji 2 in the 1990s, with Robin Williams. And it would obviously have been lunar!
Chris Van Allsburgscreenwriter of the first Jumanji says, during an interview for SyFy Wirethis sequel proposed by the producers and which he bluntly describes as “stupid”.
He says that the story was to follow the last scene of the first opus, where the game fails in France. Jumanji 2 should therefore start in Normandy:
“The game drifts across the ocean and ends up at an antique dealer in Normandy. The President of the United States promises his children to bring them a souvenir of his trip to celebrate the D-Day landings. They end up stopping at the antique store and the President finds this board game!”
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The rest we see coming: “He brings it back to Washington and all the chaos the game can generate spills over into the White House and Congress. There were some crazy things. I believe a gorilla was supposed to climb the Washington Monument in homage to King Kong” explains the screenwriter.
This sequel never saw the light of day and for good reason, in one scene, several animals had to be cut up by a propeller.and afterwards they reformed into different parts of a single animal. It was just a poor excuse to see what a CGI expert could do. Totally stupid” concludes Chris Van Allsburgwho made it his mission to prevent the film from seeing the light of day.
He thus set about writing a script for a Jumanji 2 alternative, which became Zathuraa film made by Jon Favreau in which two kids play a magical space-themed game.
Jumanji finally experienced a second wind in 2017 with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and its sequel Next Level in 2019.
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