Walt Disney has given is Mandeville Films production shingle the go-ahead on a remake of the SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON as well as a feature based on the classic Disneyland theme park ride JUNGLE CRUISE, reports VARIETY. Despite Disney saying it wouldnt produce any more features based on theme park rides after the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN sequels, producer/ Mandville head David Hoberman announced in May 2004 that the studio has looking at JUNGLE CRUISE as a possible feature.
Originally SWISS FAMILY was to be a contemporized version of Johann David Wyss book, but a screenplay couldnt be agreed on. Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group president Nina Jacobson suggested that they keep the film set in 1800s period, which was penned by Greg Poirier. After which, Jacobson and studio boss Dick Cook greenlit the project.
As for CRUISE, Hoberman described the movie as "an adventure film with comedic elements, but its core is almost a family version of Joseph Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS, about a group that travels upriver, in search of a significant cure. Josh Goldstein and John Norville (TIN CUP) have been hired to write the screenplay.
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