Seemingly undeterred by the middling box office performance of Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland, Disney is dusting off the theme-park-ride-to-movie business model for another spin, after Deadline brings word that the company is plotting for a live-action film based on Tower of Terror.
Holding a reputation as one of the park’s most enduring and popular attractions, the House of Mouse has drafted in Big Fish and Frankenweenie scribe John August to cook up a treatment for the nascent project, with plans now in place to search for a a writer to take August’s framework and expand it into a feature-ready screenplay.
For the uninitiated, Disney’s marquee theme park ride crams a group of five into a claustrophobic lift which, after being struck by lightning, plummets into the dark and terrifying underbelly of the titular hotel. Old school in name and nature, it’s unclear whether the haunted house feature will fully embrace the art decor and period setting that the Tower of Terror so perfectly recreates, though we’ll likely learn much more about the project as it nears a production start.
Hopping to tap into the trailblazing success of Pirates of the Caribbean, the company’s Tower of Terror feature is certainly not the first theme park-based feature of its kind, though it does harbor a flicking ember of potential. Remaining with Disney for the time being and the studio is also adapting the ever-popular Jungle Cruise ride for a live-action adaptation with Dwayne Johnson attached, and it’s likely that Tower of Terror will need a similarly big star to spearhead its production.
It’s early days on Disney’s Tower of Terror feature, but the latest installment in the Pirates franchise, Dead Men Tell No Tales, will dock in theaters on July 7, 2017.