Diksha Sundriyal
Starring Jack Black and Paul Rudd, ‘Anaconda’ follows the attempt of four friends to reboot their favorite movie. Doug, Griff, Claire, and Kenny were a tight-knit group who used to make movies for fun. The idea, especially for Griff and Doug, was to become filmmakers. While Griff became a background actor, Doug turned towards wedding videography. When Griff claims he has the rights to the original 1997 ‘Anaconda,’ the friends regroup to present their own spin on the story. But filming a movie about a snake means going into the heart of the jungle and cruising through the river. For this, they require a boat, and on their arrival, they are greeted by Benedita. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Benedita is a Real Boat Made for Anaconda
Benedita serves as a major location for the events of ‘Anaconda,’ with the group using it as their base while they film the movie. Given the significance of the location, the real film’s crew decided to make a real boat, which could be used as the primary filming location instead of relying entirely on pre-built sets and green screens. The entire boat was built from scratch by the film’s production crew and was designed to serve various purposes of filming. The boat was large enough to house all the main characters, while also providing space for the real crew to use it as a base to film the scenes where the characters go into the river.
The boat was built in Australia, specifically the Gold Coast, which also served as the base for filming. Actor Jack Black shared his thoughts about the boat, which was christened Benedita, and said that it provided a much more thrilling experience compared to the usual sets. As in the movie, the real boat cruised along the river, allowing the film’s crew to tape the scenes as realistically as possible, adding a raw sense of realism to the story, highlighting the struggles of Doug and his crew.
It is also remeniscent of the boat used in the original 1997 ‘Anaconda,’ which also has the characters cruising through a river in the search for the beast. The boat also serves as a great plot device, restricting the characters to one place, especially as tension starts to run high following one mess up after another. With the real anaconda coming into the picture, the stakes run higher than ever, turning the boat into the only safe haven they have in the middle of all the chaos.
Read More: Is Heitor the Snake Dead in Anaconda?
