Scarlett Johansson knows it’s taking awhile for her Tower of Terror movie to get off the ground, but she remains committed to making the project a reality. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly while promoting her new film Jurassic World Rebirth, the actress/filmmaker shared an update on Tower of Terror. According to Johansson, the story has proven to be a difficult hurdle for the creative team to clear, a byproduct of the Disney Parks attraction not having much narrative material to build a full-length feature around. Despite those issues, Johansson believes they’ll be able to figure something out soon.
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“It’s a hard nut to crack. Harder than you think, because the ride itself, there’s some lore to it, but it’s… I don’t want to say thin, but it is, kind of!” Johansson said. “That’s part of the mystery of the ride. It’s been a fun project to work on, because it’s a blue sky project. It has also proved to be a hard nut to crack. But, we’ll crack the case of it. It’s taking shape!”
Word of the Tower of Terror movie broke back in 2021, with Johansson intending to both star and produce. Since that initial announcement, development on the film has not gone smoothly. It was first put on hold while Johansson settled her lawsuit with Disney over Black Widow‘s pandemic-era release, and then work had to be paused during the dual Hollywood strikes of 2023. After the strikes were resolved, Johansson expressed excitement over working on the script.
Though Johansson is planning to star in Tower of Terror, the project is also another example of her growing career behind the camera. This year saw the release of her latest directorial effort, Eleanor the Great. Johansson has said she’d also like to direct a Marvel Cinematic Universe film at some point.
Disney has a fairly mixed track record when it comes to producing feature films based on its theme park rides. Pirates of the Caribbean is obviously the gold standard, as that became an extremely lucrative franchise. Other projects weren’t nearly as successful; the likes of 2015’s Tomorrowland and 2023’s The Haunted Mansion were box office bombs. Even Jungle Cruise, which is getting a sequel, underwhelmed — though its performance comes with an asterisk since Jungle Cruise debuted during the pandemic and also brought in $66 million from sales on Disney+ Premier Access. Johansson is a bankable star, but adaptations of theme park rides have proven to be a tough nut to crack in general. Pirates becomes more of an outlier as time goes on.
To Johansson’s point, the Tower of Terror attraction has a very simple setup. Set in the same universe as The Twilight Zone, it follows a group of hotel patrons who mysteriously disappear when one of the elevators is struck by lightning. In contrast from Pirates of the Caribbean, a concept that easily served as the framework for a classic adventure blockbuster, there isn’t as much to do with Tower of Terror. Johansson and her team are going to have to dig deep to expand beyond the source material and find a story that’s worth telling. It’ll be interesting to see what she comes up with. There’s potential for Tower of Terror to be a fun, family-friendly thriller if the nut gets cracked.
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Image courtesy of Netflix.
