Robin Williams' film Jumanji thankfully dodged 'crazy' sequel idea
After the success of the Robin Williams’ original Jumanji in 1995, which made more than $260 million at the box office, Sony wanted more, but their sequel ideas weren’t exactly great. Luckily, none of them got made.
In an interview with the author upon which the Hollywood film is based, Chris Van Allsburg revealed some of the ideas the studio was proposing. He hated one idea especially, and didn’t write another book in the series to sway Sony to make it instead. Robin Williams wasn’t too keen to return, either, but would have had a small yet odd cameo.
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Chris said a second film was in development called Jumanji: The White House. It would have directly followed the final shot of the movie where two French girls can be seen walking towards an unknown board game on a beach. The plot would have seen Jumanji end up in Normandy and be picked up, by the US president, of all people, in an antique store to take home to his children. Chaos, of course, would then have ensued.
“He packs it up and he takes it back to Washington, DC and then all the mayhem that the game can generate is generated in the White House and the halls of Congress …” the writer told SYFY WIRE.
“They had some crazy stuff. I think there was a gorilla that climbs the Washington Monument in an homage to King Kong.”
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Another element of the plot would have seen a couple of animals cut in half by a helicopter or airplane blade and then they would have resembled themselves into different parts of a new animal. Chris called the idea “totally idiotic.”
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This is how Zarthura came to be. The author explained: “I thought, ‘Well, what if inside the Jumanji jungle game, there was a space adventure game on the backside? Instead of playing Jumanji, a game in which the jungle came into your house, what if it was a space adventure game in which your house went to outer space?’”
The film was made but didn’t make back all of its $65 million budget despite being well-received by audiences.
Another sequel idea featured a rundown circus using the game to get business back to booming after it falls into their possession.
Chris seemed more optimistic about the reboot flicks that materialized, featuring celebrities such as Dwayne Johnson.
“They still believed in Jumanji and went back [into sequel development] for some years, I don’t even know how many years, and then finally came up with Jumanji recast as a video game [in Welcome to the Jungle].”
Robin Williams didn’t seem so keen, either
The late celebrity wasn’t sure about returning as Alan Parrish in the Jumanji sequel. Although he was apparently open to doing the voice of an animated/CGI “very large” toad who has been transformed by a witch doctor. It would have followed the same idea as in Jumanji when Peter (Bradley Pierce) tries to cheat and turns into a monkey.
“Robin Williams would [only] have to put in four or five days establishing his human character and at the end, [we’d see] his revitalized human character,” Chris recalled.
“But the middle of the film would be driven by this loudmouthed toad voiced by Robin Williams. The producers liked it, but that one didn’t really get up and go either. Looking back on it, I think it could’ve been great.”
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