Saw the preview for this last night during Lost. I thought, gee that sounds familiar! A babysitter has to take care of some kids, who find an old game and start to play. The elements of the game become real, and (as the narrator says) the only way to stop it is to finish the game.

It sounds so similar to Jumanji that I can only surmise that they were based on the same source.

You mean you didn't know ahead of time that in fact, they are? If not, then good call, Influx.

Me, I kept thinking of Collateral when I saw that new Clive Owen/Jennifer Aniston film Derailed, because of some similar themes in them. Even though Derailed was based on a novel, I later learned that the guy who adapted the screenplay was the screewriter of Collateral.

They're supposed to be promoting it tonight on "The Apprentice". According to the episide promos, one of the candidates repeatedly mispronounces the title.

Zathura is by the same author as Jumanji; they are apparently two separate books, although the movie's site says "a new adventure from the world of Jumanji," so I don't know if they are related.

I thought it was a little soon for a remake. I considered that it might be a "re-envisioning" of the story, since CGI has improved so much since Jumanji.

Not that Hollywood has ever copied any idea before...

(additional) I wonder if the name "Zathras" from Babylon 5 was in any way influenced by the original title.

I hope the book Zathura had more original content than the movie seems to. Cause otherwise it just looks like the same exact movie with a scifi skin and without robin williams.

I guess this movies main claim to fame is that among the cast is a pre-Twilight Kristen Stewart.