For fans of the campy cult-classic serpentine horror story that was 1997’s otherwise-panned Anaconda starring Jennifer Lopez, the trailer for the new revival starring Jack Black and Paul Rudd just got a lot more enticing thanks to an appearance from original star Ice Cube.
The meta adventure-comedy is “NOT A REBOOT,” as the synopsis emphatically states, but rather, “an entirely original comedy, inspired by the cinematic ‘classic’ Anaconda. [It] features Doug (Black) and Griff (Rudd), who have been best friends since they were kids and always dreamed of remaking their all-time favorite movie. When a midlife crisis pushes them to finally go for it, they head deep into the Amazon to start filming. But things get real when an actual giant anaconda appears, turning their comically chaotic movie set into a deadly situation. The movie they’re dying to make? It might just get them killed…”
The trailer, which includes anaconda-referencing lyrical stabs from Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back,” shows scenes after the remake’s production goes awry and the buddies are forced to flee in a side-by-side from a pursuing boa. The preview peaks with with the reveal of Ice Cube, who arrives with his signature hard stare and fully strapped with two handguns.
Following the release of the original movie—which also starred Jennifer Lopez, Jon Voight, Eric Stoltz, Jonathan Hyde, and Owen Wilson—Sony Pictures expanded the brand with the 2004 theatrical sequel The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, followed by three direct-to-video installments, including a crossover with the Lake Placid series.
Directed by Tom Gormican, who also directed 2022’s Nicolas Cage-led meta action-comedy The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Anaconda also stars Steve Zahn, Thandiwe Newton, Daniela Melchior, and Selton Mello. Watch the first and final trailer below before it arrives in theaters on Christmas.