The upcoming Black Widow may be drawing her decade-long association with the Marvel Cinematic Universe to a close, but Scarlett Johansson and Disney are looking to remain in business together, with the actress attached to star in and produce Tower of Terror, the latest Disney theme park attraction to be getting the feature film treatment.
Eddie Murphy’s The Haunted Mansion may have long since been forgotten about, Tomorrowland flopped and the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is facing continued backlash for dropping Johnny Depp, but the Mouse House are evidently still keen to translate some of the most well-known Disneyland rides to the big screen, with Dwayne Johnson’s Jungle Cruise coming to theaters and Disney Plus next month.
Now seems like a strange time to resurrect the Tower of Terror movie, when the marquee version was rebranded as Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout! in 2017, but it isn’t clear yet if Johansson’s spin on the story is in any way connected to the project that John August was developing a few years back. In 2015, the writer was developing a concept that he described as somewhere between Time Bandits, Groundhog Day and Back to the Future where the elevator moves through time, which is an admittedly interesting approach.
Tower of Terror was also the subject of a 1997 TV movie starring Steve Guttenberg and Kirsten Dunst, which wasn’t quite as fantastical as what August had in mind, but we’ll just have to wait and see what Johansson has in store for the property. It could really go either way, but the time travel concept sounds as though it could be worth revisiting, and the presence of a big star should position it as a high priority project for Disney.