In a way we already have a remake of Jumanji. In 2005 director Jon Favreau made Zathura: A Space Adventure, a carbon copy of the 1995 adventure comedy, only instead of the kids at the center of the plot playing a jungle based game the kids in Zathura played one set in outer space. Yet this summer we learned that the original is up for a reboot. The project was announced this past summer - with confirmation that the project will be updated for the present - and this past August Amazing Spider-Man producer Matt Tolmach came on to guide the production. And now they've found their man with the pen.
THR says that Zach Helm has been brought aboard to draft the Jumanji remake - but all other details about the project remain largely hidden. As previously said the film will be "an update for the present," but the project will still be based on Chris Van Allsburg's book from 1981. The article doesn't mention when Columbia Pictures is planning on moving forward with the film and there's no mention of a director hunt.
Helm is best known for writing the 2006 fantasy dramedy Stranger Than Fiction and both writing and directing Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium in 2007. He is currently working on the comedy Freezing People Is Easy, a Errol Morris-directed cryogenic comedy that's based on an episode of Ira Glass' "This American Life" and is set to star Paul Rudd, Christopher Walken and Owen Wilson. His next work will be seen in December of next year as he did a rewrite of the new Ben Stiller remake of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
