Disney is once again materializing a new “Haunted Mansion” live-action movie, based on its Disneyland theme park ride.
After trying to bring the famous attraction to the box office back in 2003, and other attempts at a reboot being put in development, the studio has found another good spirit to bring the 999 haunts back to the big screen.
Director Guillermo del Toro was attached to a reboot of the property in 2010, even going so far as to co-write the script before the project was abandoned.
Screenwriter Katie Dippold has been tapped to pen the project. No stranger to ghosts on the screen, Dippold previously collaborated with Paul Feig on the 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters.
Disney previously adapted The Haunted Mansion into a feature film back in 2003, the same year that they released another theme park attraction based movie in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, but with little success. Eddie Murphy starred in the film which incorporated characters and even direct quotations from the Disneyland ride.
Disney used the ride as inspiration for its 2003 horror comedy “The Haunted Mansion” with Eddie Murphy portraying a workaholic realtor who buys a mansion that turns out to be haunted. The movie, directed by Rob Minkoff, grossed $182 million worldwide on a $90 million budget.
The film is being spearheaded by producers Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich and their Rideback production banner. Lin and Eirich previously saw success with Disney with the live-action reboot of the Aladdin remake which went on to gross over a billion dollars at the worldwide box office and kick start yet another new franchise for the House of Mouse.