Jungle Cruise Producer Dany Garcia on Making Their Movie Different From Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion

Jungle Cruise had its long-awaited big premiere at Disneyland last night and many folks were in attendance, including stars Dwyane Johnson and Emily Blunt. The new movie, which is based on the Disneyland ride of the same name, was produced by many folks who often work with Johnson, including the star’s former wife and current business partner, Dany Garcia. Garcia co-founded Seven Bucks Productions with Johnson back in 2012 and continues to play a major role in his career. While attending the Jungle Cruise premiere yesterday, Garcia spoke with Variety about the movie and revealed what makes it different from the other Dinsey movies that are based on rides.

“Well I have to tell you, we had, we know that there are big swings in front of us. I mean, you have to look at Pirates of the Caribbean, know what they did, know what the previous Haunted Mansion, those storylines. So we felt we could take the premise, the heart, the humor, and add – you know, Walt [Disney] always wanted the tour to be exciting and a little bit of tension in it and a little action, you know, it is the jungle. So we want to lean into that, just turn up the volume and say, ‘Okay, let’s take it out of our little ride,’ and all of a sudden you’re in the Amazon, and maybe there’s waterfalls and maybe there’s a little more danger. It wasn’t that hard, we just blew it up big.” You can watch the clip in the tweet before:

“It’s such a cool dynamic to watch because they’re polarized from each other,” Emily Blunt recently shared with ET Online about her and Johnson’s characters. “They have such different philosophies on life and their sense of humor, like how they walk into every day, it’s just completely the antithesis of one another. So, I think it makes for this really fun interplay between them that’s reminiscent of those Romancing the Stone films … That clash of like two people that are kind of storming into each other’s world.”

You can check out the official synopsis for Jungle Cruise here: “Inspired by the famous Disneyland theme park ride, Disney’s Jungle Cruise is an adventure-filled, rollicking thrill-ride down the Amazon with wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff and intrepid researcher Dr. Lily Houghton. Lily travels from London, England to the Amazon jungle and enlists Frank’s questionable services to guide her downriver on La Quila—his ramshackle-but-charming boat. Lily is determined to uncover an ancient tree with unparalleled healing abilities—possessing the power to change the future of medicine. Thrust on this epic quest together, the unlikely duo encounters innumerable dangers and supernatural forces, all lurking in the deceptive beauty of the lush rainforest. But as the secrets of the lost tree unfold, the stakes reach even higher for Lily and Frank and their fate—and mankind’s—hangs in the balance.”

Jungle Cruise arrives in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access on July 30th. If you haven’t signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.

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