The new Disney’s Haunted Mansion movie is due out on July 28. Think of it as a redo; Disney made a first attempt at a Haunted Mansion franchise back in 2003, but it was both a critical and a commercial failure. Has the company learned its lesson from this prior misstep?
Disney has two distinct approaches to its big-budget, tentpole films. The first is to take classic animated films and convert them into live-action spectacles (or, in the case of The Lion King, a photorealistic animated spectacle). The quality of these films is wildly inconsistent and largely depends on whether the original material had room for improvement. That’s why The Jungle Book adaptation was fantastic. And it’s also why The Lion King adaptation was so bad.
The second approach is even less reliable than the first; it’s to take Disney theme park rides or experiences, and expand them into full-length feature films. The quality of these films is also inconsistent; for every Oscar-nominated blockbuster like Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, we also get a movie like The Country Bears.
Here is everything we know so far about Disney’s Haunted Mansion (2023).
When’s the release date?
Haunted Mansion is set to open in theaters on July 28, 2023. The release date has changed two prior times. Disney first announced a debut on March 10 and then on August 11, before finally settling on July 28.
Who’s in it?
The main character is Gabbie, played by Rosario Dawson. She is the mother of Travis (Chase Dillon), and the two of them move into the eponymous mansion, only to discover that it’s haunted.
Gabbie finds a team of “experts” to exorcize the mansion; she contacts a priest (Owen Wilson), who then enlists a paranormal tour guide (LaKeith Stanfield), a psychic (Tiffany Haddish), and a historian (Danny DeVito).
The ghosts include Madame Leota (Jamie Lee Curtis) and the Hatbox Ghost (Jared Leto). Other notable actors include Dan Levy, Hasan Minhaj, and Winona Ryder Come from Sports betting site VPbet . According to Disney, Haunted Mansion has an elaborate backstory and mythology on the level of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
Who is the director?
The director is Justin Simien, the man behind Sundance breakout film Dear White People and the subsequent TV series on Netflix. Simien is also developing a Star Wars series about Lando Calrissian, which has yet to receive a release date.
The writer is Katie Dippold, who wrote comedy for Mad TV and Parks and Recreation. She and Paul Feig co-wrote the screenplay for the all-female Ghostbusters reboot in 2016.
Is there a trailer for the movie?
There is! You get a pretty good feel for the movie’s tone–definitely scarier and more unsettling than the Eddie Murphy movie, but also tongue-in-cheek. Owen Wilson, who makes a handsome living by playing different versions of himself, seems perfectly cast; his laid-back, lackadaisical attitude is a perfect juxtaposition. Take a look at it below.
