Disney Is Turning Disneyland's Club 33 Into a Movie

Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy is on board the Club 33 movie as a producer.

By Cameron Bonomolo

Welcome to the club. Disney is inviting moviegoers into Club 33, a feature film inspired by the private restaurant that has been nestled inside Disneyland's New Orleans Square since 1967. A prized invitation for Disney fans, the members-only dining club — named after its former entrance at "33 Royal Street," near Walt Disney's iconic Pirates of the Caribbean attraction that inspired the studio's ride-to-movies adaptations — is being imagined as a fantastical place akin to Shawn Levy's Night at the Museum movies. 

The Club 33 movie "centers on Kim, a young aspiring detective living in present-day New York, who receives a mysterious invite to the highly secretive Club 33," according to The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported the news. "In this case, it's a magical and exclusive dining club that exists outside of time and space. The club's members are the greatest and most iconic members from the past: geniuses, royalty and history-makers. When a murder is committed on the premises, the patrons look to Kim to solve it."

THR adds that the movie is said to "exude the tone and vibes" of Night at the Museum, Levy's Fox-made fantasy-comedy about a night watchman (Ben Stiller) hired at the Museum of Natural History, where an ancient curse brought all the exhibits to life after dark. The real-life Club 33 was envisioned by Disneyland founder Walt Disney, who drew inspiration from the executive lounges at the 1964 New York World's Fair, but died before the exclusive club opened in 1967.

Darren Lemke, whose credits include Sony's live-action Goosebumps movies, Shazam!, and Kung Fu Panda 4, is writing the script. Levy (Deadpool & Wolverine) is producing via his 21 Laps Entertainment with Dan Levine (Free Guy) and Dan Cohen (Stranger Things). Executive Emily Morris, an executive producer on Disney+'s animated Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again and 20th Century Studios' The Boogeyman, is overseeing the project for 21 Laps.

Disney has been turning its theme park rides into movies since 1997 when Tower of Terror, based on the Walt Disney World elevator drop ride, debuted on ABC as a made-for-TV movie. 2001's Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl kicked off Disney's blockbuster Pirates franchise that has grossed a collective $4.5 billion at the box office over five movies, but 2000's Mission to Mars, 2002's The Country Bears, and 2003's Eddie Murphy vehicle The Haunted Mansion failed to recreate that success. Most recently, Disney turned Disney Parks' Tomorrowland into a sci-fi adventure starring George Clooney and Jungle Cruise, starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, sailed into theaters and on Disney+ in 2021.  

In 2022, it was reported that Disney was developing a movie inspired by Disney's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad theme park ride with Barbie star Margot Robbie's LuckyChap Entertainment and Ridley Scott's Scott Free Productions.

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