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The Walt Disney Company has made many movies based on its original attractions. Indeed, the best-known and most successful example is the Pirates of the Caribbean series, which had five movies and made Captain Jack Sparrow a modern pop culture icon. Since then, Disney has always tried to turn its theme park rides into movies. The Country Bears (2002), Tomorrowland (2015), and Jungle Cruise (2021) are all examples. Bert & Bertie, who made Hawkeye in 2021, will direct a movie based on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This idea isn’t going away. The Haunted Mansion is the one ride at Walt Disney Parks that should be easily changed.
Its famous images and a surprising amount of history make it the perfect place for a movie. In 2003, Disney tried to cash in on the attraction’s popularity with The Haunted Mansion, which starred Eddie Murphy. With a comedian like Murphy in the lead role, you might expect his take on the ride to be very funny. Now, it’s true that the ride has always had a very obvious sense of humor, but the movie version lacked the creepy charm of the ride and relied too much on jokes. Also, iconic characters like the Hat Box Ghost and the Black Widow Bride were nowhere to be found.
Director Justin Simien, who made the 2014 movie Dear White People and used to work at Disneyland, wants to make his movie version of the popular attraction with the help of several well-known artists and a star-studded cast. Based on what they showed at the D23 Expo in 2022, it looks like a very good mix of adventure and horror. Read on to find out what we know about the information shared at D23 behind closed doors and everything else we know so far.
Cast
- Rosario Dawson as Gabbie
- Jamie Lee Curtis as Madame Leota
- Jared Leto as The Hat-Box Ghost
- Owen Wilson as Kent
- Danny DeVito as College History Professor
- LaKeith Stanfield as Ben Matthias
- Tiffany Haddish as Harriet
- Kurt Yue as Police Officer
- Bryan McClure as The Headless Knight
- Chase Dillon as Travis
- Kamran Shaikh as Suited Man
What Is the Release Date for Haunted Mansion?
On July 28, 2023, the ghosts of the Haunted Mansion will be able to feel your good vibes. The movie was supposed to come out on March 10, 2023. Then, the date was changed to August 11, 2023. Finally, the date was brought up to the present. That’s the last time the schedule for the much-anticipated movie will have to be changed.
Trailer for Haunted Mansion
On March 2, the scary teaser trailer for Haunted Mansion was shown for the first time to the public. This was a treat for fans of the famous attraction. Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and her young son Travis (Chase W. Dillon) move into their new home, which is the titular Haunted Mansion, as the first scene shows. It doesn’t take them long to realize that the house is full of restless ghosts. To find out what’s going on, they call an ambitious priest (Owen Wilson), a down-on-his-luck tour guide (LaKeith Stanfield), and a wise medium (Tiffany Haddish). Some familiar ghosts from the ride, like the Black Widow Bride and the Hat Box Ghost (Jared Leto), can also be seen in the trailer.
We also got a longer look at the movie when Justin Simien took the stage at the Disney & Pixar Studio Showcase at D23. He showed the world and characters of this new version of Haunted Mansion in an extended trailer. For those who couldn’t make it to the showcase, it’s too bad that the footage was only shown at the panel and hasn’t been put online yet.
To give a short summary, the trailer starts by introducing the main characters, Ben, Kent, Gabbie, and Harriet. As they explore the mysterious mansion, they find a room that looks like the one where Madame Leotta lives, also known as the sorceress head trapped inside a crystal ball. The rest of the trailer shows even more scary ghost-like images and introduces even more strange characters, such as a Danny DeVito character who plays a strange college professor.
The first full trailer for Haunted Mansion gives us a better idea of what to expect. Our group of characters realizes how bad things are and decides to fight back against the ghosts that are haunting their mansion. It gives a good idea of the tone of the movie because it shows a mix of his scary parts and his sense of humor.
Haunted Mansion Plot?
The plot is pretty vague, and the trailer didn’t tell us much more about it, but an official synopsis gave us a little more information:
“A single mom named Gabbie hires a tour guide, a psychic, a priest, and a historian to help exorcise their newly bought mansion; after discovering it is inhabited by ghosts.”
We already know that Rosario Dawson (Ahsoka) will play Gabbie, that LaKeith Stanfield (Sorry to Bother You) will play Ben, that Owen Wilson (Loki) will play Kent, and that Tiffany Haddish (Harriet) and Danny DeVito (an unnamed professor) will play the psychic and the historian, respectively.
As for the ghosts that are supposed to show up, we know that the Hatbox Ghost will surely be there. Hatbox Ghost is a famous part of the ride that just recently returned. At the event, it was strongly suggested that Jared Leto (Morbius) would play the part. We also know that the Bride will be in the movie, and that she has a very interesting backstory. Most of the “happy haunts” in the Haunted Mansion really are happy. They might scare people sometimes, but, except for the Bride, they are not mean or cruel. Constance Hatchaway was her original name. It’s heavily implied that she killed her husband (or husbands) and is now looking for her next victim in the mansion. Either of these well-known ghosts would make a great main bad guy.
Who is the Director of Haunted Mansion?
At first, Guillermo Del Toro, the Oscar-winning director of The Shape of Water (2017) and a legend in horror and practical effects, was in charge. Like many of Del Toro’s projects, this one wasn’t meant to be for the talented writer/director, but Justin Simien is a suitable replacement. Simien has made a name for himself as one of the most exciting new storytellers. He worked on both the hugely successful 2014 film Dear White People and the critically acclaimed Netflix series with the same name. Simien will also work with Disney for a long time, as he is now attached to the upcoming Lando series.
Even though Del Toro is no longer directing the project, he is still credited with writing the screenplay for the movie, along with D. V. DeVincentis (High Fidelity) and Katie Dippold (The Heat). This is good news for people who wanted Del Toro to direct the movie because it means that many of his ideas will probably make it into the movie. Del Toro will also work on the movie as an executive producer.
The rest of the ghostly crew is made up of composer Kris Bowers (King Richard), cinematographer Jeffery Waldron (Little Fires Everywhere), editor Phillip J. Bartell (Bad Hair), production designer Darren Gilford (TRON: Legacy), and costume designer Jeffery Kurland (Collateral).
