Disney is building a new Haunted Mansion.
Katie Dippold, perhaps best known for writing the recent Ghostbusters reboot and hit comedy The Heat, is writing a feature based on the popular ride for the Burbank-based studio.
Rideback, the banner run by Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich that was behind Disney’s billion-dollar-grossing Aladdin remake, is producing what is intended to be a live-action movie.
The Haunted Mansion ride debuted in 1969 and was an immediate success. The premise sees theme park guests go inside a spooky and creepy manor that has a wide array of supernatural frights. It also features a graveyard’s worth of characters, ranging from the spirit of psychic medium Madame Leota to the skeletal Bride to the cloaked Hatbox Ghost.
Disney previously adapted the ride into a 2003 movie directed by Rob Minkoff and starring Eddie Murphy. The project took a broad approach to the material. The studio since has tried to reimagine the feature adaptation with Guillermo del Toro serving as co-writer and producer.
The trick with Haunted Mansion for Disney has always been the fine-line balance of genuine scares, fun and appropriateness for the wide Disney audience.
Disney did exactly that when it first translated Pirates of the Caribbean to the screen in 2003. The movie launched a multibillion-dollar franchise and made execs look inward to see what other attractions could work as movies. It took some development, but next year finally brings Jungle Cruise to the screen. The movie, scheduled to hit theatres July 30, stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt.
Dippold was a writer on Parks and Recreation before seguing into movies, scoring a hit with The Heat, the 2013 action comedy that starred Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy. She worked on the all-female reboot of 2016’s Ghostbusters, combining laughs and scares, and also wrote Snatched, the action comedy that starred Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn.
Dippold is repped by Ziffren Brittenham.
