With Pacific Rim hitting theaters this July, director Guillermo Del Toro is finally back in action with what promises to be a big sci-fi epic.
There’s already talk of a Pacific Rim sequel, and Del Toro being Del Toro, he’s got plenty more projects he’s hoping to get made as well.
We recently reported here on TG that Del Toro’s going to give his major dream project, At the Mountains of Madness, one more try, and he also recently told the site MySpill.com that he’s still working on his big screen edition of The Haunted Mansion, the famous Disney attraction. Yes, there was an Eddie Murphy comedy version back in 2003, sorry I had to remind anyone of that, but you know Del Toro’s obviously going to deliver something radically different.
This story is especially interesting for me because I love the Haunted Mansion attraction at Disneyland, especially the great tour guide narration by voice-over master Paul Frees (Rocky and Bullwinkle, Hardware Wars). As Del Toro told MySpill.com, “Haunted Mansion is very much alive and in process. Disney is very supportive and we are doing another draft of the screenplay.”
Del Toro’s longtime screenwriting partner on Haunted Mansion, and all of his other films, is Matthew Robbins, who also did a secret re-write of Close Encounters with Hal Barwood and he also directed Dragonslayer.
Del Toro noted that Disney really wants to do it, and he may just produce Mansion with another director taking the helm. And again, don’t expect a comedy or something like Pirates of the Caribbean.
“It’s going to be scary,” Del Toro continued. “Hopefully it will be fun scary, rather than funny scary. It’s going to be fun but the idea is to make it scary like when you go through the ride as a kid – part of you is charmed and part of you wants to get out of there.”
Variety has also reported that Del Toro is looking to cast Emma Stone in another haunted house film he’s working on, Crimson Peak.
There’s not much known about the project yet except it’s a ghost story, and it currently has a start date of February 2014. Remember, haunted houses are still a hot genre thanks to the Paranormal Activity series, and whether he’s doing ghost stories, or giant robot epics, it’s good to see Del Toro up and running and making movies again.
