Disney Revives ‘Haunted Mansion’ With Writer Kate Dippold

Disney has found away to make a new happy haunt.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, The Heat scribe Kate Dippold has signed on to write a new take on a proposed Haunted Mansion feature. The film will be based on the Disneyland (and other Disney Parks) ride about a swinging wake, a ghost host, and, well, more than a few never-completed story ideas.
This history of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion could be worthy of a film on its own. Originally conceived as a walk-though attraction by Walt Disney and Imagineers Rolly Crump and Yale Gracey, the “Museum of the Weird” molted into a ride after the development of the Omnimover system for Tomorrowland’s Adventure Thru Innerspace. It’s storyline never fully formed, so tales of the mansion being the home of a murderous bride (or her murderous groom) varies across the decades and even at specific version of the ride.
It is unclear how many of the ride’s signature ideas will make it into Dippold’s script as, from a narrative standpoint, Haunted Mansion is quite malleable. A 2003 film starring Eddie Murphy played up its campy elements while Guillermo del Toro worked with the studio for many years to develop something more like his film Crimson Peak. But as long as Madame Leota and the Hitchhiking Ghosts make into the finished film, we’ll be pretty pleased.
Haunted Mansion is not yet scheduled for release.