Stranger Than Fiction writer to pen Jumanji remake

Last summer, the news that literally nobody had been waiting for finally broke… Jumanji would be getting a remake! Since then, it’s all gone a bit quiet, although that’s all about to change with the hiring of a new writer.

Columbia has hired Stranger Than Fiction screenwriter Zach Helm to have a bash at the script, which you’ll recall is an adaptation of a well-loved children’s story by American author Chris Van Allsburg.

The plot follows a family’s discovery of a magical, jungle-set board game, the perils of which soon make themselves apparent in the real world. Cue monkeys in the kitchen, a monsoon in the hall… you get the general idea.

Back when the news of a remake was originally announced, Columbia’s Doug Belgrad explained that the plan was to “try and reimagine Jumanji and update it for the present”, so that’s the brief Helm will be working from.

Helm has previous with family films, having written Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium , so we can understand Columbia’s thinking behind the appointment. Whether anyone actually needs another version of Jumanji is another matter…