While you might not know producer John Davis’ name, I promise you’ve seen his work. As the Founder & Chairman of Davis Entertainment, he’s produced over 100 feature film and television projects in his career and his movies have collectively grossed more than $5 billion worldwide. You can check out his full resume over on IMDB. With his latest film, Jungle Cruise, now playing in theaters and available on Disney+ with Premiere Access, I recently landed an extended interview with Davis and John Fox, President of Production at Davis Entertainment, to talk about making the film.
During the wide-ranging interview, they shared some great stories about making Jungle Cruise, how they landed Dwayne Johnson, and balancing the nods to the ride with a great story. But the best thing they shared was what it was like to visit the secret Disney vault in Burbank with Dwayne Johnson and Sean Bailey (the president of production at Walt Disney Studios) in preparation for making Jungle Cruise. I’ve heard about the secret vault many times but very few people get inside.
In addition, Davis and Fox talked about talked about how the movie industry has changed during Davis’ career, how the industry has shifted to an IP driven model over movie stars, having studios that aren’t as willing to take risks, how Davis been trying to make Tricksters in the Madhouse (based on the true story of the Minneapolis Lakers playing the Harlem Globetrotters in 1948) for thirty years, how they’re shooting a movie using The Mandalorian technology, and more.
Check out what they had to say in the player above and below is exactly what we talked about. If you’d like to listen to our conversation as a podcast head over here.
John Davis and John Fox:
- What project has been the one that can’t seem to get made?
- How he’s been trying to make Tricksters in the Madhouse for 30 years.
- After The Man from U.N.C.L.E came out did they ever discuss making a sequel?
- Which of Davis’ films went through the biggest changes in the editing room?
- How Game Night went through very little changes in the editing room.
- I Robot talk.
- Does he save the alternate cuts of his movies or do they not exist anymore?
- How has the movie industry changed since Davis got involved in the 80s?
- How the movie industry is more about the IP and not the movie star with a lot less risk taking by the studios.
- How long have they been trying to make Jungle Cruise?
- What was it like trying to shoot the movie with Dwayne Johnson’s always busy schedule?
- How they went to the set of Ballers to present Johnson with the script.
- How they balanced putting in nods to the ride while also telling a great story.
- How David, Fox, Sean Bailey and Dwayne Johnson went to the secret Disney vault in Burbank and what the experience included.
- Did they ever have another version of the script or story that was a lot different?
- Did anything get cut due to budget or schedule?
- What would people be surprised to learn about the making of Jungle Cruise?
- How they’re using the Volume technology that The Mandalorian uses on an upcoming movie.
- At what point during the making of Jungle Cruise did they realize they were making something that would tune out well?
- What projects are coming up for them?
- How long do they think The Blacklist can last on NBC?
