As Jungle Cruise prepares to chug into cinemas this weekend, Disney is keeping one eye on its results and another on the fellow theme park attraction adaptations it has in the works. One is moving forward, as Tiffany Haddish and LaKeith Stanfield are now in talks to star in the latest take on The Haunted Mansion.
Dear White People and Bad Hair director Justin Simien will make the movie based on Katie Dippold's script. As a theme park attraction, 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.
The new movie's story follows a family 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. Simien is gearing up to shoot the film this autumn in New Orleans. Which, incidentally, is partly where the 2003 movie starring Eddie Murphy was shot, though this one has no connection to that.
Given the relatively early stage for this one, the Mouse House has yet to announce a release date, though around Halloween 2022 might be a prime slot...