We just can’t seem to keep this man off the radar lately. Back with another slab of news, it seems director Guillermo del Toro is open to directing the Disney ride adaption, Haunted Mansion – but the film is proving more difficult than he first anticipated.
While del Toro is a director who likes to keep busy (he’s working on Crimson Peak, an untitled small black-and-white project and a little thing called Pacific Rim 2 as of right now), he had gone pretty quiet on the Haunted Mansion front – that is, until he took part in a recent Reddit AMA session.
Speaking to a legion of fans on the popular forum site, he had this to say on the current state of affairs:
“2 weeks ago, I went back to Disneyland with the executives with whom I am developing the screenplay. 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. It’s a tough balance and I would be happy to report [that] we had the screenplay. We always feel like we are very close, but not yet. We have developed 50-60 pieces of art. 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. It is a movie I would love to direct, but I would be happy to just produce it if the timing is not right. I, by the way, was named Guest for the Day for the Haunted Mansion the last time I did, which gave me unlimited access to ride the mansion several times during the day. Unfortunately it was just the moment my left knee decided to bust and I had to go back home with a busted knee.”
To hear Doug Jones’ name mentioned is a definite bonus – he is the chameleonic actor responsible for the Faun and Pale Man in Pan’s Labyrinth and Abe Sapien in del Toro’s Hellboy series. The actor’s dedication to his art is unquestionable and his work under prosthetics should rank alongside Andy Serkis’ groundbreaking endeavors in motion-capture performance.
Nevertheless, it seems del Toro has his work cut out for him if he’s to get Haunted Mansion off the ground. It’s looking like an increasingly tricky beast to wrangle, and he has often found himself aboard sinking ships as far as failed projects go (At the Mountains of Madness, anyone?).
However, del Toro seems totally invested in making this a reality and, as a fan, I remain cautiously optimistic that whatever he decides to do will be the right choice. Will del Toro sort out the scripting troubles and production delays? Only time will tell, but here at We Got This Covered, we’ll be sure to bring you the latest news as and when it develops.
As always, leave your comments and thoughts in the comments section below!