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Here’s Why Dwayne Johnson Call Himself Emily Blunt’s “Sidekick!”(Photo Credit –Facebook)

Dwayne Johnson wasn’t afraid to hand over the compass on this one. When the Jungle Cruise sequel got the green light, The Rock proudly called himself Emily Blunt’s “sidekick” — and fans were all in. The news broke on August 30, 2021: Jungle Cruise officially leveled up to franchise status. Disney locked in a sequel after the film crossed the $100 million mark at the domestic box office.

For Johnson, that milestone wasn’t just about numbers. It was a celebration. “Mahalo for making Jungle Cruise cross that $100M mark at the US box office,” he shared in a post, adding, “Jungle Cruise is only the 4th movie of 2021 to achieve that milestone. Not an easy accomplishment these days, so thank you guys so much.”

Dwayne Johnson took to Instagram again on September 2, confirming what fans had...

Forbidden Fruits has just added some more star power to its cast. Gabrielle Union, best known for starring in Bring It On and Bad Boys II, has joined the upcoming horror movie.

According to Deadline, character details for Union remain under wraps. The actor joins an ensemble that includes the previously announced Lili Reinhart (Riverdale), Lola Tung (The Summer I Turned Pretty), Victoria Pedretti (Netflix's You), and Alexandra Shipp (X-Men: Apocalypse), as well as influencer Emma Chamberlain. Forbidden Fruits is currently in production and marks the feature directorial debut of Meredith Alloway.

Alloway co-wrote the screenplay for Forbidden Fruits with Lily Houghton, based on the latter's play Of the Women Came the Beginning of Sin, and Through Her We All Die. The upcoming genre movie follows "Free Eden employee Apple, who secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of the mall store after hours – with fellow fruits Cherry and Fig.

Jennifer’s Body and Lisa Frankenstein scribe Diablo Cody is set to produce the feature directorial debut Forbidden Fruits by Meredith Alloway, and Deadline reports that Gabrielle Union (Breaking In) has joined the already stacked cast.

Forbidden Fruits is currently in production now, with IFC Films and Shudder set to release in 2026.

The film is an adaptation of playwright Lily Houghton’s stageplay Of the Women Came the Beginning of Sin and Through Her We All Die. Alloway and Houghton are co-adapting.

Forbidden Fruits follows “Free Eden employee Apple, who secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of the mall store after hours – with fellow fruits Cherry and Fig. But when new hire Pumpkin challenges their ‘girl boss’ ways, the women are forced to face their own poisons or succumb to a bloody fate.“

Character details remain under wraps, but Union joins previously announced cast members Lili Reinhart...

Exclusive: Gabrielle Union (The Inspection) is the newest addition to the cast of Forbidden Fruits, the new genre film marking the feature directorial debut of Meredith Alloway.

Character details are under wraps. She joins an ensemble that also includes Lili Reinhart, Lola Tung, Victoria Pedretti, Alexandra Shipp, and Emma Chamberlain, as previously announced. The film is in production now and has been picked up for distribution in 2026 by IFC Films and Shudder, as we were first to report last month.

Based on Of the Women Came the Beginning of Sin, and Through Her We All Die, the play by Lily Houghton, who wrote the script with Alloway, Forbidden Fruits follows Free Eden employee Apple, who secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of the mall store after hours – with fellow fruits Cherry and Fig. But when new hire Pumpkin challenges their performative sisterhood, the women are forced to face their own poisons or succumb to a bloody fate.

Emma Chamberlain is getting in front of the camera in a different way!

The 23-year-old YouTube star and occasional red carpet host has landed her first on-screen movie role in the upcoming film Forbidden Fruits, according to Deadline.

The female-centric movie will also star Lili Reinhart, Lola Tung, Victoria Pedretti and Alexandra Shipp.

Keep reading to find out more…

Co-written by Meredith Alloway and Lily Houghton, the movie is an adaptation of Lily‘s play, Of the Women Came the Beginning of Sin, and Through Her We All Die, and centers on “Free Eden employee Apple secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of the mall store after hours – with fellow fruits Cherry and Fig. But when new hire Pumpkin challenges their performative sisterhood, the women are forced to face their own poisons or succumb to a bloody fate.”

Meredith will make her directorial debut with the feature,...

Last month, Deadline broke the news that Oscar-winning Juno writer Diablo Cody, who has also written the genre films Jennifer’s Body and Lisa Frankenstein, will be producing Forbidden Fruits, which will mark the feature directorial debut of Meredith Alloway and is an adaptation of the Lily Houghton stage play Of the Women Came the Beginning of Sin, and Through Her We All Die. Now, Deadline reports that Lili Reinhart (Hustlers), Lola Tung (The Summer I Turned Pretty), Victoria Pedretti (You), Alexandra Shipp (Barbie) and newcomer Emma Chamberlain have signed on to star in the film, which has also secured a U.S. and Canadian distribution deal with IFC Films and the Shudder streaming service. IFC Films is planning a 2026 theatrical release.

In Forbidden Fruits, Free Eden employee Apple secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of the mall store after hours – with fellow fruits Cherry and Fig. But...

IFC Films and Shudder have acquired the U.S. and Canadian rights to Forbidden Fruits, Deadline reports.

Meredith Alloway makes her feature directorial debut from a script she co-wrote with Lily Houghton, adapted from Houghton’s play Of the Women Came the Beginning of Sin, and Through Her We All Die.

In the film, Free Eden employee Apple secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of the mall store after hours – with fellow fruits Cherry and Fig. But when new hire Pumpkin challenges their performative sisterhood, the women are forced to face their own poisons or succumb to a bloody fate.

Lili Reinhart (“Riverdale”), Lola Tung (“The Summer I Turned Pretty”), Victoria Pedretti (“The Haunting of Hill House”), Alexandra Shipp (Barbie), and Emma Chamberlain star.

Diablo Cody is producing alongside Mason Novick, Trent Hubbard, and Mary Anne Waterhouse.

“The team has gifted me creative freedom and support in every step of the process,...

Exclusive: IFC Films and AMC Networks’ horror streamer Shudder have acquired the U.S. and Canadian rights to Meredith Alloway’s feature debut Forbidden Fruits, co-written by Alloway and Lily Houghton.

The film is adapted from Houghton’s play Of the Women Came the Beginning of Sin, and Through Her We All Die, and is produced by Mason Novick, Diablo Cody (Jennifer’s Body), Trent Hubbard, and Mary Anne Waterhouse.

Forbidden Fruits will star Lili Reinhart (Hustlers), Lola Tung (The Summer I Turned Pretty), Victoria Pedretti (You), Alexandra Shipp (Barbie) and Emma Chamberlain in her debut performance. IFC Films plan to release the film, which is currently in production, theatrically in 2026.

In Forbidden Fruits, Free Eden employee Apple secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of the mall store after hours – with fellow fruits Cherry and Fig. But when new hire Pumpkin challenges their performative sisterhood, the women are...

Jennifer’s Body and Lisa Frankenstein scribe Diablo Cody is set to produce the feature directorial debut Forbidden Fruits by Meredith Alloway, Deadline reports today.

The film is an adaptation of playwright Lily Houghton’s stageplay Of the Women Came the Beginning of Sin and Through Her We All Die. Alloway and Houghton are co-adapting.

Forbidden Fruits follows “Free Eden employee Apple, who secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of the mall store after hours – with fellow fruits Cherry and Fig. But when new hire Pumpkin challenges their ‘girl boss’ ways, the women are forced to face their own poisons or succumb to a bloody fate.”

In other words, expect a tale of retail and magick.

“Forbidden Fruits grabbed me by the neck the very first time I read it,” Cody told Deadline. “It’s one of the craziest, most creative, beautifully bonkers projects I’ve ever worked on.

Exclusive: Oscar winning Juno scribe Diablo Cody is producing the feature directorial debut of Meredith Alloway, Forbidden Fruits.

Alloway is co-adapting the feature with playwright Lily Houghton off the latter’s play Of the Women Came the Beginning of Sin, and Through Her We All Die.

The project follows Free Eden employee Apple, who secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of the mall store after hours – with fellow fruits Cherry and Fig. But when new hire Pumpkin challenges their “girl boss” ways, the women are forced to face their own poisons or succumb to a bloody fate.

Cody, Mason Novick, Trent Hubbard and Mary Anne Waterhouse are set to produce the feature, via Novick’s Mxn Entertainment banner.

EPs are Charlie Traisman and Katherine Romans from Madhouse Films alongside Casey Durant and Rachel Douglas from Range. WME Independent will be handling sales for the project.

“Forbidden Fruits...

Emily Blunt Jungle Cruise Kids (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Okay, hold up. Emily Blunt scared the living daylights out of us in The Girl on the Train and A Quiet Place? Yeah, her kids weren’t interested in her movies. No, seriously. They had zero interest…until Jungle Cruise hit their screens.

Blunt dropped the truth bomb during an appearance on Live with Kelly and Ryan, saying her two daughters, Hazel and Violet (aged 7 and 4 at the time), weren’t exactly lining up to watch mom’s blockbuster roles. But when Jungle Cruise came around, things got real. “Interestingly, this has been the only trailer they have watched multiple times,” she said.

Now, let’s talk about why. In Jungle Cruise, Blunt plays Dr. Lily Houghton, a badass early-20th-century scientist on a wild quest to find the Tree of Life in the Amazon. She’s not alone, though. She’s got riverboat captain Frank Wolff,...

Did Emily Blunt almost quit A Quit Place sequel? ( Photo Credit – Instagram )

Not the story or differences, nope, the culprit was Covid. Emily Blunt and hubby John Krasinski had already wrapped filming and were all set for a March 2020 release. Then, bam—pandemic. The world shut down, and so did their movie debut.

March 12, 2020. The release was pushed back, and A Quiet Place Part II was left in limbo. Blunt? She dove straight into quarantine life. Instead of dodging creepy monsters, she was homeschooling her kids, getting lost in books, and popping up in quarantine projects—like Some Good News with Krasinski. Let’s not forget her cameo in Stanley Tucci’s iconic cocktail tutorials. Just your average pandemic life, right?

But here’s the kicker: The iconic actress wasn’t even sure she’d return to the A Quiet Place universe at one point. “I don’t believe that everything should be sequel-sized,...

Exclusive: Veteran manager Trent Hubbard will join Linden Entertainment.

Hubbard moves to Linden after four years at Echo Lake Entertainment and previous to that he was in the Motion Picture Talent Department at UTA. He is currently executive producing Adam Rehmeier’s feature film Carolina Caroline starring Samara Weaving; executive producing Alok Vaid-Menon’s comedy special Biology!, who Hubbard represents and just secured a first look deal in Sony TV for them and executive producing Meredith Alloway’s directorial debut Forbidden Fruits with Mason Novick and Diablo Cody which is written by Alloway and Lily Houghton, both of whom Hubbard will continue to represent at Linden. Hubbard is also on the advisory board of the non-profit Rainbow Labs.

Other clients that will follow Hubbard includes Sarah Ramos (The Bear); Shirley Chen (Didi); Sarah Kameela Impey (We Are Lady Parts); Nadia Tereszkiewicz (Forever Young); Michelle Trachtenberg (Gossip Girl); Charly Clive (The...

Jungle Cruise captured the Disney adventure spirit while paying homage to the beloved theme park ride with passionate and magical performances. Despite a dedicated crew and star cast, Jungle Cruise disappointed with bland characters and a predictable plot, falling short of blockbuster expectations. Global theater closures and Covid-19 impact contributed to Jungle Cruise's underwhelming box office performance, mirroring other delayed Disney films.

The 2021 release of Jungle Cruise, although highly anticipated, was not the blockbuster it promised to be. Based on the original Disneyland ride of the same name, the film follows Dr. Lily Houghton and her brother MacGregor as they enlist the aid of pun-loving skipper Frank Wolff and his steamboat to venture down the Amazon River in search of an all-healing ancient tree. The ride has long been a classic staple of Disney parks, originally designed and first operated by Walt Disney himself.

Jungle Cruise does a great job...

Dwayne Johnson is down to make a Jungle Cruise sequel in the future. Johnson and his Jungle Cruise co-star, Emily Blunt, will work together again in the Mma biopic titled The Smashing Machine. Johnson and Blunt discuss The Rock's attempt to woo the actress to take their Jungle Cruise, which fared fairly well at the box office in 2021 despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Emily Blunt are joining forces again, but not for Jungle Cruise 2... at least, not yet. While attending the 96th Academy Awards, Johnson revealed that he will be working with his Jungle Cruise co-star on an Mma-related biopic, The Smashing Game, next. However, Johnson would like to see Frank Wolff, aka Francisco Lopez de Heredia, set sail again with Dr. Lily Houghton. Johnson responded to a question about making a follow-up to the 2021 Disney film in an interview with Variety:

Possibly. Down the line,...

Dwayne Johnson expressed interest in reuniting with Emily Blunt for Jungle Cruise 2 at the 2024 Oscars. While he said he wants to do it, he also stopped before confirming it would happen, saying, "We'll see." Disney is likely to greenlight Jungle Cruise 2 due to the popularity of the original and the star power of Johnson and Blunt.

Dwayne Johnson discusses the possibility of reuniting with Emily Blunt for Jungle Cruise 2. The Black Adam star teamed up with Oscar-nominee Blunt in director Jaume Collet-Serra's 2021 fantasy adventure movie, where he played a riverboat captain who takes a scientist and her brother along the Amazon River in search of the Tree of Life. Jungle Cruise, which was released amid a struggling box office around the Covid-19 pandemic, was a modest success, and a month after its debut, a sequel was announced to be in development. However, there have been few updates since.

The Black List is the annual round-up of feature film screenplays that have yet to be produced.

Hollywood’s annual round-up of most popular screenplays yet to be produced has been topped by Travis Braun’s Bad Boy.

The Black List is compiled from the suggestions of more than 375 film executives, each contributing the names of up to 10 favourite feature film screenplays that were written in, or associated with, 2023, and will not have begun principal photography during this calendar year.

It was founded by Franklin Leonard in 2005.

This year, scripts had to receive at least seven nominations to be included.

Rounding up the best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood, as voted on by hundreds of film executives, The Black List has been a strong resource to clue one in on projects to potentially anticipate, but first, to kickstart Hollywood on bringing them to screen. Today we have this year’s edition, as voted on by more than 375 film executives.

Topping the 2023 edition is Travis Braun’s Bad Boy, which follows a rescue dog who suspects his loving new owner is a serial killer. Other scripts include The Great Pretender, a drama which imagines the kidnapping of Tom Hanks; the Super Bowl-set sniper drama The Nest; the Area 51 thriller 10/24/02; a Hans Christian Andersen meets Charles Dickens fantasy; plus films about Patsy Cline, Didier Drogba, Arthur Miller and Elia Kazan, Ftx’s downfall, and more.

See the list below via Deadline (and Pdf here), ranked from top to bottom by number of votes.

At the close of a particularly fraught year for Hollywood screenwriters, Monday saw the release of the annual Black List – a ranking of the top unproduced scripts in show business.

Voted on by nearly 400 creative executives, this year’s favorite project that has yet to receive a greenlight is “Bad Boy” by Travis Braun, described simply as the tale of a rescue dog who suspects his loving new owner is a serial killer. C2 Motion Picture Group is financing the project and meeting with potential distribution partners imminently.

The list includes 76 titles and covers wide narrative ground. Kirill Baru and Eric Zimmerman’s “The Great Pretender” is the story of America’s sweetheart Tom Hanks getting kidnapped, and the doppelgänger who must step in to save him. Hunter Toro’s “Boy Falls From Sky” tells of an anxious playwright whose world is turned upside down by lies and bone-crushing accidents...

The Black List has revealed its 2023 list of best unproduced screenplays, with scripts that include a biopic of country singer Patsy Cline, the rise and fall of Sam Bankman-Fried crypto empire Ftx, and an action-comedy about Tom Hanks and his doppelganger.

Topping this year’s list is a feature script from Travis Braun titled Bad Boy, with a logline that reads: “A rescue dog suspects his loving new owner is a serial killer.”

Elsewhere on the list is a screenplay about the Broadway playwright behind notorious disaster Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark from writer Hunter Toro, and a script focused on soccer star Didier Drogba from Jackson Kellard.

“This year, the industry was defined by a debate about the value of writers within it, and I think it’s inevitable that this year’s Black List means more than it has in the past,” said Black List founder and CEO Franklin Leonard.

Survival expert Hazen Audel analyzes the piranha scenes in Disney's Jungle Cruise, awarding them a grade of seven out of 10. While acknowledging that it's an unlikely scenario to find yourself being swarmed by piranhas, the animals' behavior is depicted mostly correctly. Jungle Cruise divided audiences and critics, continuing a length streak for star Dwayne Johnson.

Jungle Cruise's piranha scenes get put under the microscope by a survival expert, and the Dwayne Johnson Disney movie is actually fairly accurate. Released in 2021, Jungle Cruise is based on the Walt Disney theme park ride, with Johnson starring as captain Frank Wolff, who ferries Emily Blunt's Lily Houghton through the Amazon in search of the Tree of Life. The film's reviews were somewhat mixed and it underperformed at the box office, but Jungle Cruise 2 was announced in August 2021.

Now, as news about the Jungle Cruise sequel remains hard to come by, survival...

October is nearly half over, which means there’s still time to plan ahead for the spooky season (especially when it comes to shipping delays). Even if you’re not a Hollywood costume designer or a DIY type, not all ensembles need to be generic — that’s why we’ve rounded up some of the best Halloween costumes that don’t look like your standard out-of-the-bag outfit.

Even better: All of our Halloween costume picks are under $100 or on sale during Amazon Prime Big Deal Days from popular brands such as Spirit Halloween and Rubie’s. Most of them require accessories that you likely already have in your closet. From Bridgerton ballgowns and dresses fit for Salem’s Sanderson sisters, to classic monsters and more, check out our favorite women’s and men’s costumes below. (We’ve also gathered our top superhero Halloween costumes if you’re into that,...

Nickelodeon is out with the nominations for its Kids’ Choice Awards 2022 and has iCarly star Miranda Cosgrove and four-time Super Bowl champ Rob Gronkowski as co-hosts. Check out the noms list and host announcement video below.

The slime-show covering film, TV, music, sports and more is set for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 9, from Barker Hangar at the Santa Monica Airport. Nick, TeenNick, Nicktoons and Nick Jr. will air it live in the East and delayed in the West.

“Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Awards has always been such a unique show with tons of energy, superstars and of course, lots of slime,” said Cosgrove, whose iCarly reboot is up for Favorite Family TV Show. “Nickelodeon has always been my family and to co-host this iconic show alongside Gronk will be a blast.”

Added the NFL star and former co-host of Nick’s Crashletes: “I’ve always been a kid at heart,...

Following recent reports that a Jungle Cruise sequel is already in development, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has now taken to social media to confirm and celebrate the news. While the first installment in what is sure to be an ongoing franchise was released only recently, the response from audiences practically made Jungle Cruise 2 a cinematic inevitability, and clearly Johnson cannot wait to return to the fantastical world alongside Emily Blunt.

"Em & I raisin' a glass to you in celebration of our official Jungle Cruise Sequel. Thank You and your families around the world for discovering and loving our film ~ in theaters and in your living rooms. And a Huge Mahalo for making Jungle Cruise cross that $100M mark at the US box office. Jungle Cruise is only the 4th movie of 2021 to achieve that milestone. Not an easy accomplishment these days, so thank you guys so much. Let's get this sequel on the road.

Jungle Cruise is officially getting a sequel. Just weeks after premiering in theaters, the hit Disney movie has crossed over $100 at the U.S. box office, and these numbers have left the powers that be impressed. THR now reports that Jungle Cruise 2 is in the works with stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt set to return to reprise their roles as Frank Wolff and Dr. Lily Houghton, respectively.

Director Jaume Collet-Serra is expected to return to helm Jungle Cruise 2 after directing the original movie. Jungle Cruiseco-writer Michael Green is also back to pen the sequel. Also expected to return as producers are John Davis, John Fox, Beau Flynn, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia, and Dwayne Johnson. Scott Sheldon is executive producing.

It's been a long road for the Jungle Cruise movie to make its way to the big screen, so Disney must be happy with its success. In development for more than 15 years,...

The “Jungle Cruise” is setting sail again.

A sequel to the adventure movie, based on the theme park ride, is in the works after “Jungle Cruise” crossed $100 million at the domestic box office this past weekend.

Dynamic duo Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt will be back for another adventure as the pun-obsessed riverboat captain Frank Wolff and the brave explorer Dr. Lily Houghton.

Director Jaume Collet-Serra is expected to return, as are executive producer Scott Sheldon and producers John Davis, John Fox, Beau Flynn, Johnson, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia. Michael Green, who co-wrote “Jungle Cruise” with Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, will write the sequel.

“Jungle Cruise” launched on July 30, both in theaters and on Disney Plus Premier Access, for an additional price tag of $30. In its opening weekend, it took in $34.2 million in ticket sales from theaters and $30 million from Disney Plus, the company reported. The film kept afloat at the box office,...

Dwayne Johnson’s “Jungle Cruise” will be getting a sequel, an individual with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap.

The film, released at the end of July, just passed the $100 million mark at the domestic box office. Emily Blunt and Johnson are set to return as Dr. Lily Houghton and skipper Frank Wolff, as is director Jaume Collet-Serra and co-writer Michael Green. The first film’s producers, John Davis, John Fox, Beau Flynn, Johnson, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia, are also set to return. Scott Sheldon will also executive produce the sequel.

The film grossed more than $35 million at the box office and more than $30 million on Disney+ Premier Access its opening weekend. Globally, the film has now grossed $187 million, with an A- CinemaScore and 92% Rotten Tomatoes score.

The first movie had been in the works for over 15 years and is based off the Disneyland ride. “Jungle Cruise” also starred Edgar Ramirez,...

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Hold onto your seat and watch out for that hippo: Jungle Cruise splashed into theaters and online on July 30, and the film is reportedly set for a sequel after surpassing the $100 million mark at the box office. Stars Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson are expected to reprise their roles as English researcher Dr. Lily Houghton and wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff, respectively.

Inspired by Disney’s theme park ride of the same name, the film follows Lily, her brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall) ...

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Hold onto your seat and watch out for that hippo: Jungle Cruise splashed into theaters and online on July 30, and the film is reportedly set for a sequel after surpassing the $100 million mark at the box office. Stars Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson are expected to reprise their roles as English researcher Dr. Lily Houghton and wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff, respectively.

Inspired by Disney’s theme park ride of the same name, the film follows Lily, her brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall) ...

Disney is ready to go down the river one more time.

With Jungle Cruise crossing the $100 million at the domestic box office this past weekend, the studio is pulling the trigger on a sequel.

Stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are set to return as wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff and intrepid researcher Dr. Lily Houghton, respectively, for the brand new adventure with Michael Green, who co-wrote the hit, back at the keyboard.

Expected to also come back are director Jaume Collet-Serra and the film’s producing team of John Davis, John Fox, Beau Flynn, Johnson, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia. Scott Sheldon returns as executive ...

Disney is ready to go down the river one more time.

With Jungle Cruise crossing the $100 million at the domestic box office this past weekend, the studio is pulling the trigger on a sequel.

Stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are set to return as wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff and intrepid researcher Dr. Lily Houghton, respectively, for the brand new adventure with Michael Green, who co-wrote the hit, back at the keyboard.

Expected to also come back are director Jaume Collet-Serra and the film’s producing team of John Davis, John Fox, Beau Flynn, Johnson, Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia. Scott Sheldon returns as executive ...

Disney’s Jungle Cruise has been another hit for the studio and lead actors Emily Blunt and The Rock. Though the movie’s story seemed relatively straightforward, as Lily Houghton and Frank Wolff searched for the Tears of the Moon Tree and had to contend with the threat of outside forces during their quest, it quickly became more complicated and compelling.

Related: Which Jungle Cruise Character Are You, Based On Your Zodiac Sign?

Furthermore, even with the formulaic nature of the script, the story managed to carve out enough character traits for its leads that a sequel can be expected based on what was teased. There were also elements that weren’t fully resolved, which made for plot hooks to build a follow-up on. Since these will be crucial for the second part to expand upon, it’s worth recapping the ways that the next adventure has been teased.

All week long, Gold Derby users have been making their predictions for what film will win the U.S. box office for the weekend of August 20 – August 22. Leading our odds for the second week in a row is “Free Guy” (dir. Shawn Levy) from 20th Century Studios. America has fallen in love with Ryan Reynolds‘ video game character named — what else? — Guy, and are expected to buy countless more tickets this weekend. Remember, last weekend it was the #1 movie in the country, raking in $28 million.

Agree or disagree with our readers’ predictions? Hurry — you still have 24 hours to make your box office predictions at Gold Derby. The cutoff time is Thursday at 5 p.m. Pt. Financial numbers and rankings are based upon weekend data (Friday-Saturday-Sunday) featured at Variety Insight. The eligible user with the best predictions score will win a $100 Amazon gift certificate and a spot on our box office 2021 leaderboard.

In a key sequence in Disney’s “Jungle Cruise,” Emily Blunt’s Lily Houghton and Dwayne Johnson’s skipper Frank have to dive off their boat to solve an underwater puzzle. Not only does Lily get trapped, but she ends up fighting for air as the drama unfolds.

Underwater director of photography Ian Seabrook stepped in to film Lily and skipper Frank as they seek the Tears of the Moon from a rare tree.

The sequence, Seabrook says, took just under two weeks to film. It required two water tanks at Blackhall Studios in Atlanta – one for the boat itself and another 177,000-gallon tank to shoot the underwater sequence.

“The sequence was shot in two bits – one where they jump into the water, and the camera is on the surface of the water. There was a techno-crane circling around them, and I stayed out of that shot,” Seabrook says.

The...

To celebrate the release of Jungle Cruise, which is out now in UK cinemas and on Disney + Premium Access, we had the chance to sit down with Edgar Ramírez, one of the film’s stars, to find out more.

Dr. Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) enlists the aid of wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff (Dwayne Johnson) to take her down the Amazon in his ramshackle boat. Together, they search for an ancient tree that holds the power to heal — a discovery that will change the future of medicine. Along the way, they discover the secrets of Don Aguirre (Ramírez) who in the 16th century went on his own search for the ancient tree – known as the Tears of the Moon – and ends up getting more than he bargained for.

Speaking to us, Ramírez told us about the strange thrills of playing a bad guy, how the film takes its inspiration from classic adventure films like Indiana Jones,...

All week long, Gold Derby users have been making their predictions for what film will win the U.S. box office for the weekend of August 6 – August 8. Leading our odds is “The Suicide Squad” (dir. James Gunn), the sequel to 2016’s cult hit “Suicide Squad” (no “The”). This 10th film in the DC Extended Universe stars Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Sylvester Stallone and Viola Davis. The comic book flick officially debuts in theaters on August 5, and will start streaming for free to HBO Max subscribers the following day.

Agree or disagree with our readers’ predictions? Hurry — you still have 24 hours to make your box office predictions at Gold Derby. The cutoff time is Thursday at 5 p.m. Pt. Financial numbers and rankings are based upon weekend data (Friday-Saturday-Sunday) featured at Variety Insight. The eligible user with the best predictions score will win a $100 Amazon gift certificate...

For anyone who has managed to not see one of Dwayne Johnson's many promotions on social media for Jungle Cruise, the latest movie based on a Disney ride arrived in cinemas this weekend and instantly stormed to the top of the box office chart with a solid $90 million plus worldwide gross across the weekend. Johnson immediately took to his Instagram of course to praise the movie and encourage even more people to see it. He also gave a firm confirmation that there are not only talks for a sequel happening, but he has a meeting with the powers that be this weekend to discuss the further adventures of his character.

Jungle Cruise received mixed reviews from critics, averaging around 63% on Rotten Tomatoes, but the audience scores told a completely different story, averaging 93% and giving Johnson one of his highest audience rated movies ever. This will no doubt help the argument for a sequel,...

Metallica re-recorded their blockbuster power ballad “Nothing Else Matters” for the new Disney blockbuster, Jungle Cruise. The band teamed up with film composer James Newton Howard (News of the World, Maleficent), who dreamt up a new orchestral arrangement of the song as an instrumental; the group then recorded their parts for the tune, which will appear twice in the newly released film. Jungle Cruise is both in theaters and available on Disney+ Premiere Access now.

The recording starts with a new performance of the song’s instantly recognizable acoustic guitar...

Remember when Disney announced the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie and the initial thinking was, “How the hell is Disney going to make a movie out of an amusement park ride?” Well, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl turned out to be more fun than anyone anticipated, and while its sequels have not always hit that same high mark, it’s clear — several billion dollars at the box office later — that the Mouse House was onto something.

Some 18 years after that first Pirates launched its first shot across the pop culture bow, Disney is back at it with Jungle Cruise, which stars Emily Blunt as Dr. Lily Houghton, a scientist determined to find a legendary source of healing powers deep in the jungle, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Captain Frank Wolff, a seemingly down on his luck but still decent-minded steamboat pilot who agrees...

From the world of Disney that brought the “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride to life in a series of successful live-action films starring Johnny Depp now comes a much feebler attempt to spin another park attraction into celluloid gold. This time out, Dwayne Johnson takes the mantle and the ride of choice is Jungle Cruise. As personable as Johnson is, neither he nor a strong performance from Emily Blunt can do anything to save this overlong film from eventually succumbing to its overbearing script.

Johnson plays Frank Wolff, the captain of a small river boat he calls La Quila, that he pilots up and down the Amazon leading thrill-seeking tourists on a staged adventure, much like a theme park ride. His delicate life/work balance is disrupted when researcher Dr. Lily Houghton (Blunt) arrives with her brother, McGregor (Jack Whitehall), to charter a vessel to take them to the heart...

“Jungle Cruise” has arrived in theaters and on Premier Access on Disney+, bringing fans to the Amazon with Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. It took years to get here, but Disney has finally gotten another of its original rides onto the big screen. And it sure is a wild ride.

Like the ride it’s based on, the movie takes fans on a journey down the Amazon River. Frank (Dwayne Johnson) is a skipper just like the ones in the parks, meaning he tells lots of terrible jokes, and shows his passengers subpar sights — including the eighth wonder of the world, the Backside of Water.

Obviously, this isn’t enough to carry a film, so what follows is a true adventure story, where Frank gets roped into helping Dr. Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) and her brother McGregor to find “the tears of the moon.” This is, naturally, a magical plant that can cure all ailments,...

“Everything you see wants to kill you — and can,” Dwayne Johnson warns in the trailer for Disney’s new blockbuster Jungle Cruise.

The Rock, who plays a skipper named Frank Wolff, and Emily Blunt, who stars as researcher Dr. Lily Houghton, set sail on “a rollicking thrill-ride down the Amazon,” according to Disney, in the new adventure film that arrives in theaters and on Disney+ this weekend.

Here’s how to stream Jungle Cruise at home on Disney+, along with where to get tickets if you want to see it in theaters.

If you’re like this writer and frequently check the IMDb page for The Mummy and Van Helsing director Stephen Sommers, you’ll see an anecdote under the trivia tab about how effects studio Industrial Light & Magic named a scale after him for the number of effects required in a scene. From lowest to highest there was “What the Shot Needs,” “What the Computers Can Handle,” “Oh my God, the Computers Are About to Crash,” and finally “What Stephen Wants.” Now that we’re at a state of cinema where it’s normal for a movie like Jungle Cruise to have every one of its principal characters look lovingly at a computer-generated animal, it’s hard not to consider the Indianapolis native’s mad vision somewhat prescient.

And even with a 16th-century Spanish conquistador prologue recalling both Aguirre: The Wrath of God and The Fountain, the register at play in...

Great cast chemistry and a surprisingly clever plot twist elevates Jungle Cruise from the standard summer CGI spectacle. The film has no down beats over its swift two hour runtime. Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra keeps the action and comedy flowing at a deliberate pace. The measured drip of excitement overcomes the sillier parts of the narrative. Fans of the Disney theme parks attraction will certainly get a kick out of the live-action adaptation.

Jungle Cruise opens in 1916 London during the first World War. Dr. Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) refuses to follow society's restrictive standards for women. She uses her prissy younger brother, McGregor (Jack Whitehall), as an accomplice to archaeological larceny. Lily is convinced that a recently found artifact will lead to a world-changing secret hidden deep on the Amazon River. She whisks McGregor to South America with the ruthless German Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons) hot on their trail.

Meanwhile in remote Brazil,...

Based on the long-running riverboat ride, Jungle Cruise premiered at Disneyland, Anaheim on Saturday night to largely favorable reactions. Starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Emily Blunt in the lead, Jungle Cruise is an epic adventure set in the early 20th century. The film follows wisecracking riverboat captain Frank Wolff (Johnson) guiding a determined researcher Lily Houghton (Blunt), and her brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall) on an expedition to discover a tree with healing abilities that could benefit modern medicine. While this makes the film sound like Anacondas 2, Jungle Cruise is inspired by Indiana Jones and The African Queen. A few early reactions have even compared it to The Mummy, owing to some scary sequences. The trio will have to navigate their way through the dangerous Jungle while fighting off deadly animals and a German prince with a U-boat. Jungle Cruise is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra from a screenplay by Michael...

Jungle Cruise may be based on the Disney theme park rides, but the real parallels are with The African Queen, the Bogart and Hepburn classic from 1951. Both films are set on the fringes of the First World War, Queen in German East Africa and Cruise in the Amazon rainforest, and both share a “will they, won’t they?” dynamic that is shaped by their dangerous journey.

Frank (Dwayne Johnson) is much like Bogart’s Charlie Allnut, only 9 inches taller and 130lbs heavier. He lives in a ramshackle boat along the Amazon River, where he operates tourist cruises replete with dad jokes and makeshift attractions. Joining Frank is Dr. Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt), who combines the class of Katherine Hepburn’s Rose Sayer with an ability to kick lots of ass. Lily recruits Frank as her skipper in the hunt for the Tree of Life, which is said to have immense...

Now that Disney has remade all of its most beloved movies, the studio is inevitably taking the next logical step and remaking Werner Herzog’s instead. In a change of pace that’s sure to delight the legion of parents who’ve been dying to show their kids “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” (but have been worried that small children might be insufficiently traumatized by the sight of Klaus Kinski monologuing to a raft full of terrified monkeys about his delusional plan to take over the world), Jaume Collet-Serra’s “Jungle Cruise” begins with the Spanish conquistador venturing into the heart of the Amazon and being consumed by enchanted tree vines that replace his organs with snakes. Played here by Édgar Ramírez, this Aguirre is just a chill 16th century Disney Dad who became so obsessed with finding the Tree of Life that he forgot what made his life worth...

Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson are romancing riverboat adventurers in a ride-turned-film that quickly becomes bland

The Jungle Cruise theme-park ride is a riverboat trip that Disneyland visitors have been queuing up for since the 1950s: an old-timey craft travelling down an artificial jungle river, with a jolly captain pointing out animatronic animals lurching out of the artificial undergrowth. Now it’s been adapted into a blandly inoffensive piece of generic entertainment: screenwriters Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (who once gave us Bad Santa and I Love You Phillip Morris) have mashed up The African Queen with Raiders of the Lost Ark, and with what I admit is a surreal splash of Aguirre, Wrath of God.

It’s lively enough for the first 20 minutes. The year is 1916, and Emily Blunt plays Lily Houghton, a haughty yet idealistic British scientist, much patronised by the male establishment in London. She imperiously hires...

In “Jungle Cruise,” a Disney adventure that demonstrates how basing a movie on a theme-park ride may now be a more natural occurence than adapting it from a novel, Emily Blunt plays Dr. Lily Houghton, a London researcher-explorer who’s as fearless, in her demure way, as Indiana Jones, and Dwayne Johnson is Frank Wolff, the friendly huckster of a river-boat captain who ferries her down the Amazon at the height of World War I.

He wears a hat just like the one Humphrey Bogart wore in “The African Queen,” and she wears pants — which, of course, were an early adaptation of Katharine Hepburn’s. For anyone old enough, or old-movie-centered enough, to care (which is maybe five percent of this movie’s prospective audience), the banter between these two could be said to evoke Bogart and Hepburn — or, at least, Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in “Romancing the Stone.

For moviegoers of a certain age, Jungle Cruise is going to feel pleasantly familiar. Similar to a theme park attraction from one’s youth, older millennials with kids of their own will be quick to notice the overt “homages” to Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz’s Mummy movies; they’ll certainly be reminded of Disney’s other successful adaptation of a Disneyland classic, with grotesque enemies resembling the cursed pirates of the Black Pearl; and there’s even Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson himself, still making jungle life look good almost 20 years after The Rundown.

Yet if they also are able to take the grandparents to the cinema (or just a Disney+ couch), they might recognize the real magic emanating from this utterly delightful adventure: In its heart of hearts, Jaume Collet-Serra’s Jungle Cruise is a throwback to old school Disney escapism and the type of movies greenlit when Walt was still alive.