Jennifer Lopez And Owen Wilson Starred Together In A Cult Classic Horror Movie

Any true horror lover who grew up throughout the '80s and '90s knows that no matter how much crap Luis Llosa's 1997 "Anaconda" got over the decades, it will always remain a precious little gem to us, former kids who weren't used to mind-blowing CGI and smart plot twists but loved monster flicks. "Anaconda" is bad — for several reasons I won't delve into — but it's on the right side of bad. It features a thrilling caricature villain (Jon Voight playing an evil Paraguayan man whose accent ranges between the unknown and the ludicrous) and celebrity household names such as Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez. And that's before the real stars of the movie, two custom-built 25 and 40-foot-long animatronic snakes show up to steal the limelight with their mesmerizingly fake eyes and robotic movement.

But, interestingly enough, "Anaconda" also marked the first picture in which The Queen of Latinas, Jennifer Lopez, and the quirky-as-ever Owen Wilson hit it off as co-stars (the next time they appeared together in a movie was two and a half decades later in the sweet, if mediocre, rom-com "Marry Me.") Llosa's film offers such an unlikely blend of people — also including Eric Stoltz, Jonathan Hyde, and Danny Trejo — that producers today would sweat blood to orchestrate another as diverse and colourful cast as this cult classic did back in the day.

There's no two ways about it: "Anaconda" is as bonkers and fun as a B-horror can get. Only if we could forget the franchise's terrible sequels that brought us more harrowing nightmares (just by starring acting giant David Hasselhoff) than "Hereditary" ever could. But even after four horrifyingly awful follow-ups, the days of the 'Conda aren't over just yet.

Although Llosa's original was perhaps a little more serious than intentionally funny (even though it's hard to make a grave film with Voight in the saddle), the sixth (!) instalment of the film series arriving at the end of this year likely won't follow that template. Titled the same as the original, "Anaconda" will be re-imagined as a horror-comedy from the get-go. Directed and co-written by Tom Gormican (the filmmaker responsible for the Nicolas Cage movie about Nicolas Cage starring Nicolas Cage), the reboot will feature Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Thandiwe Newton, and Steve Zahn among others — and presumably some snakes, too. There isn't a ton of info about it just yet (apart from Black and Rudd talking nonsense in a silly promo video), but I really hope they will primarily aim for laughs instead of scares. Given this cast and the director, I think it's fair to say that's a safe bet.

Not that there would be something wrong with a more faithful reboot (anything goes these days, really), but the spirit of the '97 cult classic is just simply unrepeatable. "Anaconda" was an unlikely and weird lightning in a bottle (exploding the box office with $136 million worldwide), a camp nirvana for its fans, capturing the horror zeitgeist in its own twisted way on a relatively low budget that brought on those special and practical effects that some people cherish, and some can't stand. Let's trust that the new instalment will be at least half as helluva good time as the original was and still is today.