Disney hires Guillermo del Toro to make new, Eddie Murphy-less Haunted Mansion movie

In surprising news from Comic-Con, Guillermo del Toro has announced that he is developing a film for Disney based on its stalwart theme-park attraction The Haunted Mansion. It’s surprising news because Disney already developed a film based on The Haunted Mansion with Eddie Murphy, which wasn’t really all that long ago. But the press release gracefully sidesteps that ill-received effort by pretending like it never happened, just like Terence Stamp has been doing for the last seven years.

Movieline fleshes things out a bit, reporting that Del Toro told the crowd that his take on the story will focus on The Hatbox Ghost, a character that was part of the original ride but was removed before its official opening due to technical difficulties, never to be seen again. He also added that the film—to be shot in live-action 3-D, naturally—will be a balance of both funny and scary, as opposed to the 2003 version’s bold choice of being neither.