You Have My Attention: Dwayne Johnson Officially Joins JUMANJI Remake

Just a few days ago, it was rumored that Central Intelligence stars Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart were up for roles in the remake of Jumanji, and now one half of that duo has officially joined the cast. Johnson posted the following message on Instagram confirming his involvement with the movie:

It's OFFICIAL: Love this script! Big movie news that me and my canine gal Shang are excited to share;) To produce, create and deliver original properties to fans like HBO's #ballers to this summer's #CentralIntelligence is one of the best parts of my job. But to take great properties that are beloved worldwide like #BAYWATCH and #RAMPAGE and have the opportunity reimagine their stories in dope new ways to a whole new generation is truly an honor. It's official. We'll produce and deliver to a whole new generation a title that I love and is one of my all time favs: There's games you play for fun... then there's games that change your life. JUMANJI Working on edging up an already very good script with my @sevenbucksprod team. Up next is meeting with our producer Matt Tolmach and director Jake Kasdan. Shooting starts this fall. Promise to deliver something cool and special.. and not screw the whole damn thing up;). As always I'll keep you posted. Casting this should be fun! #JUMANJI #JungleLife #JustPressStart #SONYPictures

A photo posted by therock (@therock) on Apr 22, 2016 at 8:36am PDT

It's unclear how closely the remake is going to stick to the story of the Robin Williams movie, but I assume they'll keep the basic premise (kids find and play a board game that releases jungle creatures into their world) and change just about everything else. After all, this script was originally written by the writers of the first movie before getting a rewrite from a couple of other writers, so I can't imagine that it'll be the same story beat-for-beat with different actors playing the roles.

Johnson is always an intriguing screen presence, but I have to admit: I'm interested right now, but if Kevin Hart ends up coming on board, my interest in this project is going to nosedive.

Jake Kasdan (Zero Effect, Orange County, Bad Teacher) is directing, and this movie has a release date of July 28, 2017.