Reboots, remakes, rehashes - whatever you want to call it, no movie fan is ever really happy about a beloved classic being 'reapproached' with a 'fresh contemporary angle'.
Logically, studios are only ever going to remake films that did well in the first place - as these have the proven love (and money) of fans - yet, of course, these are also the films that people care about the most.
However, the film stands a fighting chance if the people involved with it happen to love it themselves - and that actually appears to be the case with the forthcoming reboot of Jumanji.
With shooting expected to begin in the Autumn, Dwayne Johnson, the first confirmed star of the cast, took to Instagram to reassure fans of the original that they'd be drawing influence primarily from Chris Van Allsburg's original children's book - rather than trying to ape the 1995 classic. However, crucially, he also said that the new Jumanji will honour the work of the late, great Robin Williams.
Johnson wrote, "I felt like in order to craft something cool we should begin where it all started. Award winning writer Chris Van Allsburg's source material of Jumanji. Chris also wrote The Polar Express (later adapted by Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks) and has a very special & magical way of storytelling. I'm feelin' good and confident stepping into these shoes as a producer as well as actor to bring you something great that you and your entire fam can enjoy.
He continued, "An important thing that I want to be honest and bring up is Robin Williams. The love and respect I have for this man is boundless. You have my word, we will honor his name and the character of "Alan Parrish" will stand alone and be forever immortalized in the world of Jumanji in an earnest and cool way. I have an idea of what to do and I think his family will be proud. I also think Robin is somewhere lookin' down and laughing, remembering the first time we met backstage and I (for the first time ever) was a star struck bumbling idiot that couldn't even get my words out. Idiot. He literally calmed me down w/ that smile and laugh. But that's for another fun story down the road.
"We got a great team assembled already over at our home base of Sony and now we build from here. Here's another fun part... in the original movie there were three big roles. In our new story there's now FIVE. Been so damn cool to see all my actor buddies push their projects aside so hopefully they can come play in our world. Should have cool casting announcements this week. Will keep you posted."
Entertainment Weekly confirmed recently that Kevin Hart was in early talks to join the case, while Bad Teacher director Jake Kasdan is overseeing the project.
Fingers crossed it'll be good - and in the meantime, enjoy some nostalgia with the trailer for the original below.
Jumanji will be in cinemas 28 July 2017
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