Thursday, July 22, 2010

Guillermo del Toro to Helm New Haunted Mansion Movie


At Comicon, Guillermo del Toro, the director of  The Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth, and the two Hellboy movies announced that he will be making a movie based on the Haunted Mansion attraction at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.


"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! This is the place where I go when I need to think or I need to relax."

del Toro promises the movie, which will be shot live action in 3-D, will indeed be a horror movie. "We are making it scary and fun at the same time, but the scary will be scary."

The idea is that the Haunted Mansion is the most haunted place on earth, and the Hatbox Ghost will be reintroduced as the villain. 

"This to me is a dream come true and I hope to steal as many props as possible, del Toro stated.



You can read the full announcement here.

Notice that there was no mention of there being a previous movie based on the attraction. I've been a big fan of del Toro's since Cronos, and am filled with hope that his Haunted Mansion movie will be light years away from the previous movie, and truer to the spirit of the attraction and what we all hope such a movie could be. This attraction is in the man's blood. 


I also wonder if the reintroduction of the Hatbox Ghost in the movie means we'll be seeing him reintroduced back into the attraction itself.


For more on the Hatbox Ghost check out this incredible one of a kind recreation by Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily.





  

3 comments:

Shawn Robare said...

I'm excited about this, and I hope that it has enough of an impact on the ride to get Disney to give it something more than just a small t-shirt cart at them parks. It's the one ride I actually do want merchandised to heck and back...

John Rozum said...

I'm with you, Shawn. It seems like whenever merchandise comes out it's either limited high-end park exclusive stuff that sells out on the first day, or action figure type things that they aren't selling when I'm visiting the park.

I love the look of the Nightmare Before Christmas characters, but I can get that stuff anywhere. Last time I went to Disney World that was all they had besides the small t-shirt and an actually pretty cool key to the Haunted Mansion which I did pick up.

Agent Spectre said...

I LOVE that key. I think it's the only exceptional piece of merch that's regularly available at the parks for The Haunted Mansion. I'm still heartbroken about missing out on the stretching room portrait tapestries that were on the Disney store site a few years back. Bring on the merch!

Majorly stoked for this also, especially given that del Toro is known for his work in details. I don't know if I speak for every HM fan, but that kind of thing is EXACTLY what I'm looking and expect in dealing with this property