Bad Teacher franchise director Jake Kasdan has been tapped to direct the upcoming reboot of Jumanji. Sony has set the release date for Christmas Day, Dec. 25, which means it will open dangerously close to Disney’s Star Wars: Rogue One.
Kasdan’s forthcoming film is a remake of the classic 1995 film directed by Joe Johnston and starring Robin William, Kirsten Dunst and David Alan Grier among others. Variety states the project, which will be written by Scott Rosenberg (High Fidelity) and Jeff Pinkner (The Amazing Spider-Man 2), will be a “a new take on Chris Van Allsburg’s original 1981 adventure book.” Community, American Dad! Writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers wrote the previouss draft, on which Rosenberg and Pinkner’s script will be based.
Kasdan has built quite a reputation as a comedic director over the years. He directed episodes of both of Judd Apatow’s cult classic TV shows Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared early in his career and helmed Orange County, starring Jack Black & Colin Hanks. He was the writer-director on Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story as well as the hilarious and severely-underrated feature The TV Set. His most recent work includes producing and directing shows like Fresh Off the Boat, New Girl and Fox’s The Gringer.