Dwayne Johnson says the JUMANJI remake will honour Robin Williams

WHAT YEAR IS THIS?! Apparently its the year where Joe Johnston’s 1995 classic action-adventure Jumanji gets dusted off by Sony for a remake. The original, based on the 1981 children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg, was one of those weird movies which got a pretty mixed critical reception upon release, but in the years to come would develop quite a beloved following. And a lot of that has to do with the late Robin Williams, who played childish wildman Alan Parrish, who got sucked into the magical world of the titular boardgame when he was a kid, only to be busted out 26 years later – but unfortunately also bringing all of Jumanji’s crazy characters and animals with him.

This new spin on the tale though will be led by a completely different type of actor in Dwayne Johnson, as was recently confirmed. “The Rock” took to Instagram to give an update on the film, talking about the direction they were taking creatively. And with Williams’ passing in 2014 still a bit fresh for the his legions of fans, Johnson also took the opportunity to assure fans that what they’re doing in the remake will still honour the funnyman’s memory.

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And the #JUMANJI magic begins. Excellent meeting with our director Jake Kasdan, producer Matt Tolmach, and our @SevenBucksProd team to work on our new re-imagining of this amazing story. 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. 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. #TheMagicBegins #JustPressStart #JUMANJI

A post shared by therock (@therock) on May 9, 2016 at 10:23am PDT

Stay classy, Rock! Stay classy.

The Jumanji remake will be directed by Jake Kasdan (Bad Teacher, Sex Tape) off a script by Scott Rosenberg (High Fidelity, Con Air). It’s been reported that joining Johnson will be his Central Intelligence co-star Kevin Hart. It is scheduled for a July 28, 2017 release.

Last Updated: May 11, 2016