"Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" meets Chinese fans

World
Europe

Actor Dwayne "the rock" Johnson, actress Karen Gillan and director Jake Kasdan were in Beijing promoting "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle".

Walking a green carpet symbolizing the jungle, the "Jumanji" crew received a warm welcome Thursday from hundreds of Chinese fans at a press conference about the fantasy adventure remake.

"Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle". /Photo via Mtime.com

"Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" is a continuation of Robin Williams' "Jumanji". The 1995 classic was the first Hollywood fantasy adventure movie imported to China

This reboot reimagines the board game from the original movie as a vintage video game, into which four teenagers are drawn.

Johnson and Gillan play two of the avatars the four hapless teens find themselves inhabiting inside the game.

"Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle". /Photo via Mtime.com

"What we're finding with 'Jumanji' and why a lot of people have been responding to the movie is this idea that, yes, we are these teenagers who are very uncomfortable in our skin, but then also playing these superheroes, if you will. So this idea that we are actually playing two people at the same time throughout the movie has been a challenge but also a lot of fun," said Dwayne Johnson.

The film's mixture of action-adventure and comedy is proving to be a big hit with fans. So far, globally "Jumanji" has taken in nearly 340 million US dollars at the box office.

"Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle". /Photo via Mtime.com

Director Jake Kasdan said the new film sticks to the spirit of the original movie but brings a whole new "spin" on the story.

"We were figuring out clever and imaginative ways to honor the original movie in certain ways to this movie. Some of them are more avert, some of them are more subtle. If you watch this movie you'll see a lot of feelings of the original movie that works through," he said

"Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle" will meet the Chinese audience on January 12.