Disney is returning once again to The Haunted Mansion and the 999 happy haunts that reside within its walls. After trying to bring the famous attraction to the big screen 17 years ago, and other attempts at a reboot being put in development, the studio has found someone to take another swing at it. According to The Hollywood Reporter 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, her other credits include The Heat (also with Feig) and the TV series Parks and Recreation.
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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.
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.
The first attempt by Disney to adapt the fan-favorite ride into a feature came when the studio was mining their properties for the big screen but with little gain. Beyond the massive success of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie, which spawned four sequels and re-designs of the ride it’s based on, films based on Tomorrowland and The Country Bears flopped at the box office. Disney seems confident in their next attempt at this style of adaptation though as the long in-development feature adaptation of The Jungle Cruise will be released next summer.
A reboot of The Haunted Mansion has previously been considered by Disney for many years with Academy Award winning director Guillermo del Toro becoming attached to write and direct a new version in 2010. The Mexican filmmakers version lingered for many years at the studio and eventually drew had Ryan Gosling attached to star. That attempt has seemingly fallen by the wayside though as no mention of either del Toro or Gosling are made in the latest report.
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