Anaconda, a new spin on a long-dormant franchise that sees a group of adventurers tracking down a giant snake in the Amazon, isn’t a reboot or a remake of the 1997 original film starring Jennifer Lopez. Selton Mello (I’m Still Here), who stars in the new movie along with Paul Rudd and Jack Black, insists the 2025 version of Anaconda is something else entirely. At CCXP25 in Brazil, I spoke with Mello and director Tom Gormican about making a comedic update of the franchise-spawning original.
“A lot of people (are) asking if it’s a reboot or a remake, and it’s not,” Mello says. “It is a very original thing that Tom and his writing partner (Kevin Etten) wrote together, and it’s amazing. It’s meta. So you have adventure, a lot of action, a little danger and humor.”
The 2025 version of Anaconda sees Rudd portraying a background actor and Black playing a wedding videographer who decide to venture to Brazil to remake the original Anaconda film. While the first Anaconda wasn’t known for its humor, Gormican says that comedy was essential in bringing a new version to life.
“Jack and Paul – they’re so funny,” Gormican says. “But they’re able to sort of dial in their performances and feel very real and feel actually scared. When the snake is attacking, everything feels so real because (they’re) such great dramatic actors (as well).”
Mello, who plays a snake handler in the film, says that he never saw an actual snake on set despite the film ostensibly being about a giant, monstrous serpent.
“Interesting thing – I played this snake handler and I didn’t see a single snake during the whole thing, so it’s all CGI,” Mello says. “And then when I watched the film I (thought) ‘Okay, we have a snake. It’s there, it’s on screen. Fantastic.’ It’s all about imagination and creativity. No danger at all. It’s great.”
For Gormican, much of the meta narrative came from his experiences as a filmmaker to the point that a shift in production meant a change for the film-within-a-film as well.
“All of our filmmaking experiences inform exactly what these guys were going through,” Gormican says. “As you start to build the movie out, all of the elements start to inform each other. At the end of the movie, we lost a major location, so we were furiously rewriting the ending. We built the entire production design and we were standing on the set with the actors and everybody had just gotten a new ending. So we put that into the movie.”
Out of everything he experienced on the Anaconda set, Mello says there’s one scene in particular that he’s excited for audiences to see.
“There’s a lot of great scenes,” Mello says.” But maybe the snake funeral (is my favorite). We did it in a very serious way. I mean, Tom gave me (that) direction and I love it. I was (a big) fan of his idea. So the funeral is crazy and funny and touching.”
Anaconda hits theaters on December 25.
And for more on CCXP, check out major reveals from the convention for Marvel, Fallout, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and more.
Michael Peyton is the Senior Editorial Director of Events & Entertainment at IGN, leading entertainment content and coverage of tentpole events including IGN Live, San Diego Comic Con, gamescom, and IGN Fan Fest. He’s spent 20 years working in the games and entertainment industry, and his adventures have taken him everywhere from the Oscars to Japan to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Follow him on Bluesky @MichaelPeyton
