Friday, July 23, 2010

From The House Of Mouse

Guillermo del Toro surprised the 6,500 fans gathered today at Comic-Con with the announcement that he is currently developing a new film for The Walt Disney Studios based on the classic Disney theme park attraction, The Haunted Mansion.

“Dark imagery is an integral part of the Walt Disney legacy. After all, Disney himself was the father of some really chilling moments and characters - think Chernabog from Fantasia or Maleficent as the Dragon or the Evil Queen in Snow White,” said del Toro. “I couldn't be more excited to be a part of my own adaptation of the original theme park attraction Walt envisioned and that remains- for me- the most desirable piece of real estate in the whole world!"

“Millions of people from around the world visit The Haunted Mansion each year, but no one has ever had a tour guide like Guillermo del Toro,” said Rich Ross, Chairman of The Walt Disney Studios. “Guillermo is one of the most gifted and innovative filmmakers working today and he is going to take audiences on a visually-thrilling journey like they’ve never experienced before.”


dreadcentral.com

9 comments:

Chris 'Frog Queen' Davis said...

We had part of our crew over last night and we were supposed to be talking about something else....but this news kinda dominated the conversation for at least an hour. I think by the time we talked around it we decided that it was a good thing. He has our blessing :D

Great news!

Cheers!

Texmom said...

With the success of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, I'm not surprised at this move. I foresee several movies based on Disney theme park rides. Will be interested to see how this one turns out.

Anonymous said...

I hope it will be good... but this will be the second "The Haunted Mansion" movie to come out in less than a decade.

Mantan Calaveras said...

I am literally breathless. When I heard about the original adaptation, I thought it had a lot of potential, but ultimately fell flat.

Getting Guillermo Del Toro, though, is exactly what the project would need. Brother has muchas heart, and worships monsters, a beast with visions. Has this actually got me excited about a Disney project? It has.

Sean-Patrick said...

Awesome! I was psyched about the last one until I saw what direction they chose to go (crappy Eddie Murphy kids movie), hopefully after Pirates they've figured out how to do it right.

FoolishCop said...

'Rot,

Turns out Del Toro isn't directing Haunted House, at least not yet.

According to a post on Johnny Thunder's Midnite Spook Frolic, Del Toro says he has other commitments that would interfere:

"Only producing and co-writing with Matthew Robbins for now. I would love to direct it if the timing allows it but I already have the next directing project ready to be announced in a week or so."

http://johnnythundersmidnitespookfrolic.blogspot.com/2010/07/del-toro-not-directing-haunted-mansion.html

At least he's involved with the project in some fashion.

Cheers,
Rich

watch me eat said...

I still would have liked to see the original idea of a Tim Burton stop motion Haunted Mansion movie. I don't know who had the bright idea to scrap that idea and replace Tim Burton with Eddie Murphy...

Still, I can see good things coming out of this new movie...

Jack Oh' Lantern said...

OMG! This is soooo awesome....I cannot wait....!

The Gill-Man said...

Gotta be better than the Murphy film. That was such a travesty, to treat such a beloved ride as an unintelligent kiddie flick. I have no problem with the film being kid-friendly...by its very nature it should be somewhat...but they don't need to dumb it down. It can be creepy, and still appeal to children.