jumanjiHenry Jackman has taken over scoring duties on the upcoming fantasy adventure Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. The film is directed by Jake Kasdan (Bad TeacherOrange County) and stars Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Jack Black, Bobby Cannavale and Nick Jonas. The movie follows four high school kids who are transported into an adventure video game and must survive from its challenges. Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers (Spider-Man: HomecomingThe Lego Batman Movie) and Scott Rosenberg (High Fidelity) & Jeff Pinkner (The Amazing Spider-Man 2) wrote the screenplay based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg. Matt Tolmach (The Amazing Spider-Man) and William Teitler (The Polar Express) are producing the project. James Newton Howard was originally attached to score the film before the movie’s release date was pushed back half a year. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle will be released on December 20, 2017 by Sony Pictures.

Jackman (Captain America: The Winter SoldierCivil WarX-Men: First ClassBig Hero 6Kong: Skull Island) also has Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle coming up, which he is co-scoring with Matthew Margeson. He will also return to score Disney’s animated sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2. The film directed by Rich Moore & Phil Johnston and featuring the voices of John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, Jodi Benson, Alan Tudyk, James Corden and Ana Ortiz takes place six years after the events of the original movie and centers on Ralph’s adventures in the Internet data space when a WiFi router gets plugged into the arcade. The animated movie will be released on November 21, 2018 by Walt Disney Pictures.

  1. Bernd-Helmut Heine says:

    No JNH? What a shame…

  2. BB says:

    You gotta be kid me? That’s not going to end well! Jackman sucks!

  3. M4gic says:

    Well done. Now I’m not interested in this movie at all !

  4. ubirajara says:

    OH, COME ON!

    Jackman’s not bad, but I would’ve been way more satisfied with him getting hired for this if James Newton Howard wasn’t involved with this movie a few months ago. But I think JNH is busy, since he has a lot of movies coming up, as well as his concert, on november, so they had to give this movie to somebody else.

    But it’s sad indeed. 🙁

  5. Justin says:

    The problem is, Jackman has never shown the kind of talents the bigger peers have, no matter how good some of his work is deemed, yet for some reason he has become the “hot” and “sought” composer of the day, getting assignments he doesn’t deserve.

    This was a J.N.H. project — perfect choice in composer.

    The Kong sequel also wasn’t for him (though admittedly, the that film deserves what it gets).

    And other films in recent years.

    • Gumplebum says:

      Um, Kong: Skull Island wasn’t a sequel. So, how would you know Kong: Skull Island “wasn’t for Jackman” and that it “deserves what it gets” if you clearly haven’t even seen it? It wasn’t amazing by all means, but it was a fun jungle type monster movie. And Jackman is by no means the composer James Newton Howard is, and I wish he was still writing the music, but he’s not that bad.

      I’m hoping that Jackman will use the Horner music from the first film if Alan Parish (Robin Williams’ character) is referenced as being in the Jungle before. Though something tells me, with his lack of use of Alan Silvestri’s Captain America theme in The Winter Soldier & Civil War, that he probably won’t. Though too in the first Jumanji film, when they finished the game, it went back to when Alan & Sarah were kids, and thus making it so he never went to the Jungle at all. So maybe they’ll mention him as a previous owner of the board game or maybe he gets props in the video game version, if they mention him at all, which I hope they do. Anyway, I just hope Jackman writes a great score because I’m excited for the film, knowing its a continuation of the first film, and it just looks really fun.

  6. Aphid says:

    Jackman is a complete and utter charlatan.