Always a man with several projects in the works, Guillermo del Toro has a busy upcoming slate. 2015 will see the release of his latest, Crimson Peak, and we learned just this week that he plans to direct a small-scale black and white film before beginning work on Pacific Rim 2. That’s all in addition to his new series, “The Strain,” which premieres this weekend. As part of the promotion of that new series, del Toro took to Reddit for an AMA and offered an update on a project we haven’t heard much about in a while: Walt Disney Pictures’ The Haunted Mansion.
[T]wo weeks ago, I went back to Disneyland with the executives with whom I am developing the screenplay,” says del Toro. “It’s a hard screenplay to crack. We’ve done it a few times. We are on our third or fourth draft, with 2 different writing teams, and I think the main thing is to try to combine everything that is great about the ride into the movie, and to make it a really intense but with a sense of fun – just like the ride.”
The Haunted Mansion was originally announced for the big screen at Comic-Con back in 2010. Del Toro is attached as a producer, but he doesn’t rule out the possibility of directing.
“It is a movie I would love to direct,” he says, “but I would be happy to just produce it if the timing is not right.”
The film is said to be built around the theme park attraction’s Hatbox Ghost and it sounds like del Toro regular Doug Jones is the frontrunner for the part.
“We have developed 50-60 pieces of art,” he continues. “We’ve developed maquettes of the Hat Box Ghost, over the body and face of Doug Jones, but we have not succeeded yet in cracking the screenplay. I have to believe that Disney will make this movie as soon as we crack the screenplay, but until then we cannot tackle it… We always feel like we are very close, but not yet.”
Check back for updates as they become available and catch del Toro’s “The Strain” premiere on FX this Sunday, July 13.
