Jungle Cruise star Paul Giamatti wrote a lot of his own dialogue for the upcoming Disney film. The movie, based on the Disneyland ride of the same name, stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, with a supporting cast that includes Giamatti, Édgar Ramírez, Jack Whitehall, and Jesse Plemons. Jungle Cruise is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and scheduled for release on July 30, 2021, simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access.
Throughout its history, Disney has adapted several of its theme park rides into feature films. Pirates of the Caribbean is the only such movie to have built a substantial franchise, but others like Tomorrowland, The Haunted Mansion, and Tower of Terror have all tried to turn Disney theme park magic into cinematic gold. Jungle Cruise is the latest such attempt, and it looks like the film will have a similar level of family-friendly fantasy adventure to that of the Pirates series.
In a recent interview with Collider, Giamatti discussed his character in the film – the enterprising and mildly villainous Nilo – and the high level of creative influence he had on how he was written. Giamatti praised Jungle Cruise’s sillier sensibilities, which include the mustache-twirling, cartoonish mannerisms of his own character. With luck, Jungle Cruise will be able to capture something similar to the same intangibly fun and wacky tone that made Pirates of the Caribbean such a hit. Read Giamatti’s full quote below.
“[T]hey let me do more of the actual from-the-ground-up creation, which I haven't really done before. They said I could write it with somebody. So really developing the thing from ground zero. I've never done that before. I'm not improvising a whole lot, but it's funny because it's sort of like, "I wrote this stuff." It was the first time I've ever experienced [that.]
“[T]here's a whole sequence in this town and they wanted to have somebody who was a big figure in the town and in this whole sequence to challenge Dwayne's character. And so I'm a little bit of a fill-in. So that's what they brought to me and they let me run with it.
Giamatti is no stranger to silly supporting characters, of course. The star has built an impressive and acclaimed career around both leading dramatic roles and smaller parts, winning a loyal fanbase along the way. His Nilo character won’t be the main villain of Jungle Cruise – a role reserved for the maniacal Prince Joachim (Plemons). The main characters Frank Wolff (Johnson) and Dr. Lily Houghton (Blunt) will also have to contend with the dangerous mercenary Aguirre (Ramírez) on their search for the Tree of Life.
Hopefully, Jungle Cruise manages to tell its story of adventure without the issues of colonial racism that the Disneyland ride has been criticized for in recent years. Any tale involving white explorers in the wilderness – generic or specific – flirts with an incredibly sensitive and often violent colonial history. As a family-friendly film from Disney, Jungle Cruise will surely aim to remain “unpolitical” in its story, but that’s a difficult task when the subject matter is so inherently complicated. Jungle Cruise releases on July 30, in theaters and for streaming on Disney+ Premier Access.
Source: Collider
