Nordling here.
Even though they were animated, Tom Hanks and Tim Allen had a good chemistry in the TOY STORY movies, and even though they may not have been in the same room much of the time, their characters' give and take felt authentic and was very funny. It seems that Disney wants to recapture that chemistry, and are apparently prepping JUNGLE CRUISE, a live-action family film based on the Disney ride, for both of the actors to star, according to Deadline.
Robert Schulman (SHREK) is writing the script, and the film has been trying to happen for several years now (probably when PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN hit it big for them). No word on the director or what the plot will be yet, but with Tom Hanks, an actor/director with a ton of goodwill and prestige, being attached to a family film, I'm pretty sure that Disney would be giving this their full attention. Tim Allen has also done very well for the studio and with Allen and Hanks together again I'd imagine that this project just jumped to the top of priority releases for Disney. I'm curious if Hanks thinks this might be a project that he'd like to direct himself; he just finished directing a film with Julia Roberts and might enjoy the big-budget action film challenge.
I hope this is more action-oriented than comedic. It would be interesting to see Hanks and Allen in a RAIDERS-esque family adventure. But whatever happens, if the film gets greenlit, we'll be seeing them together again and I hope they're as successful a team in live-action as they were in their animated films.
Nordling, out.
