In November 2003 Eddie Murphy took audiences into Disney’s Haunted Mansion for an adventure. Now, a new cinematic story in the spooky site based on the popular theme park ride has a release date just over a decade later.
Today Deadline Hollywood reported that the movie, simply titled Haunted Mansion, will be released on March 10, 2023. It will open the week after Paramount’s take on the Dungeons & Dragons franchise and stars Ashoka actress Rosario Dawson as a single mother who hires a small team to help her exercise her newly bought mansion after discovering it is haunted.
The road to the silver screen for the project has been a long and winding one. A version of it first began under Guillermo del Toro in 2010. At one point, Ryan Gosling was attached as a star before they both exited, and the new version will include Tiffany Haddish, Lakeith Stanfield, Owen Wilson, and Danny DeVito as a college history professor.
Haunted Mansion, currently in production, is directed by Dear White People helmer Justin Simien and has a script from Katie Dippold, who previously wrote 2013’s The Heat, co-wrote 2016’s Ghostbusters, and 2017’s Snatched. While fans wait, they can watch the Muppets Haunted Mansion special on Disney Plus and park trips if a spooky fix is sorely needed. The project also delayed a sequel to Wedding Crashers, so here’s hoping it ends up being something worth the long wait.