'IT'S BEEN ALONG TIME COMING

Jack Black and Paul Rudd have admired each other's work from afar for decades, but until now, they've only had fleeting opportunities to make movie magic together.

- By Nikita Lee

One was back in 1997 in a small but memorable Beatles cameo in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, in which Black played Paul McCartney to Rudd's John Lennon. The other, a brief sharing of the screen in another comedy, Year One, in 2009.

Fast-forward to late 2024 and the stars were heading to the Queensland rainforest for their first proper movie-making experience together – a reimagining of 1997 action/horror cult classic Anaconda.

“This has been a long time coming,” Black, 56, told Empire of his big-screen collaboration with Rudd. “Me and Paul have been in a mutual admiration society for decades.”

Both veterans of the comedy genre, Black and Rudd were the perfect duo to bring the meta-reboot to life, taking on the roles of Doug and Griff respectively, lifelong best friends who are finally realising their dream of making their own version of the original