Scott Rosenberg Comes Aboard ‘Jumanji’ For Columbia Pictures

EXCLUSIVE: Scott Rosenberg has just been tapped to do a rewrite on the redo of Jumanji for Columbia Pictures. The project is considered a high priority for the studio as it plan to have the film set for release on Christmas Day next year. The project, produced by Matt Tolmach and Bill Teitler, is said to be a re-imagination of the original Chris Van Allsburg book about a board game that comes to life.

Rosenberg has written for both the small and big screen. The first season of Zoo based on the 2012 novel of the same name by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge was just completed for CBS which he developed, wrote and executive produced with Josh Appelbaum, Andre Nemec and Jeff Pinkner. In fact, Pinkner is going to consult on the Jumanji script with Rosenberg. Ted Field and Mike Weber are executive producing.

Rosenberg’s credits are very well known, and he is versatile in comedy and action and also is adept at adapting books, which makes him kind of the perfect scribe for Jumanji since the project encompasses all three of those skill sets. He has written everything from Beautiful Girls, Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead, High Fidelity to Gone In Sixty Seconds and Grasshopper Jungle (a YA novel about high school teenagers who fight for their lives during the apocalypse).

The first Jumanji was released in 1995 with the late (still hard to believe, isn’t it?) Robin Williams starring along with Kirsten Dunst and Bonnie Hunt. Rosenberg is repped by WME.