In between turning its animated back catalogue into live-action movies, Disney looks for film opportunities for its many theme park rides. The Mouse House has already adapted The Haunted Mansion in to a comedy horror starring Eddie Murphy in 2003. But it is trying again, hiring The Heat and Ghostbusters writer Katie Dippold to tackle the adaptation.
The Haunted Mansion first began spooking guests at Disneyland in 1969 and sends those brave enough to cross its threshold on the "doom buggy" ride through the building, encountering ghosts along the way.
In 2003, the Murphy film saw him as a workaholic real estate agent who is summoned to a mansion with his family that turns out to be full of ghosts, and they learn lessons about their relationships along the way. Though it made more than $180 million, it was overshadowed by the success of the Pirates franchise.
And this isn't the first time that the studio has flirted with the idea of the place as the setting for a new film – Guillermo del Toro had it on his sprawling to-do list (with Ryan Gosling briefly on board), but that seems to be buried somewhere in Disney's development graveyard.
Quite what the story will be this time remains to be seen, though Dippold obviously has supernatural experience thanks to her time on 2016's Ghostbusters.Dan Linand Jonathan Eirich, who produced Aladdin for Disney last year, are involved with this one.