Director Justin Simien is hard at work on the post-production process for Haunted Mansion, Disney's latest stab at bringing the classic theme park to screens. And he arrived at the company's D23 event with footage and news to share, including the fact that Winona Ryder and Schitt's Creek's Dan Levy's cameo in the movie.
Rosario Dawson, LaKeith Stanfield and Tiffany Haddish are starring in the new film, which follows a family (led by Dawson's single mother) that moves into the titular mansion. Stanfield would be a widower who once believed in the supernatural but is now a rather lifeless tour guide in New Orleans’s French Quarter. Haddish would play a psychic hired to commune with the dead.
"I related to it. I felt like I knew I could make it. I was a fanboy, so I understood the ride," Simien, a former Disneyland employee himself said on stage at D23. "I had to make sure all the details and Easter Eggs were there."
And indeed, the footage shown had plenty of characters and references for those who love the ride. Jared Leto is playing the iconic Hatbox Ghost, while no less a horror icon than Jamie Lee Curtis is Madame Leota, AKA the floating head in the crystal ball. Also in the cast? Owen Wilson as a sarcastic priest, while Danny DeVito is a local professor.
Haunted Mansion will be in cinemas next year.