DUBAI: After the successful movie adaptations of Disney theme-park rides like the popular “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise and The Rock-starring “Jungle Cruise,” the studio returns with “Haunted Mansion,” seeking to be a complete departure from its lukewarm 2003 attempt starring Eddie Murphy.
Helmed by Justin Simien, the 40-year-old American director most famous for “Dear White People,” the film — hitting theaters in the Middle East on July 27 — follows Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and her son (Chase W. Dillion) as they enlist a motley crew of so-called spiritual experts to help rid their home of supernatural squatters.
For Simien, the opportunity to work with Disney feels almost fated. Apart from multiple trips to the parks, Simien also spent a summer as a graduate student hosting rides at Disneyland.
“It didn’t really strike me how profound it was that I got this opportunity and that I had so many experiences that would kind of fuel how I directed ‘Haunted Mansion,’” said Simien in a recent online interview with Arab News.
“Because, you know, when you’re living a life trying to make movies, you never really know which one’s gonna go. I’m never relaxed or feel like the thing is even gonna really happen until we’re kind of halfway through the shoot. And it kind of has been dawning on me this whole time that a lot of strange coincidences came together for this movie to happen for me and I’m just so lucky that I got so many things to draw from in my personal history to tell this story.”
While Dawson’s and Dillion’s characters get the ball rolling in terms of plot, at the heart of the movie is the story of Ben, played by Oscar-nominated actor LaKeith Stanfield. Ben is a scientist who specializes in paranormal activity and is at an “existential crossroads,” as he mourns the loss of a loved one.
“The characters are going through some deep things. When you find my character, Ben, at the beginning of the story, he’s down on his luck, while grieving the loss of his wife who has recently passed away. So, he’s trying to find answers to these unanswerable questions and has pretty much gotten to the point in life where he’s given up,” said Stanfield, according to production notes.
When Ben is hired by Dawson’s Gabbie to look into the haunted mansion, he brings together more “experts” to deal with the problem.
Rounding out the star-studded cast are big names including Danny DeVito, Owen Wilson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jared Leto and Tiffany Haddish.
Apart from a stellar cast, Simien was also keen on utilizing as much practical effects as possible, as a nod to the classic theme ride the movie is based on.
“It was so important for this movie, to have practical effects and be practical-effects forward. We didn’t want to send anything off to ILM or to any other digital company that didn’t really have the effects firmly baked in-camera. It’s a lot more fun to shoot that way,” said Simien.
“But it’s also the reason why I think the ride is so beloved. Because it still relies on effects from the turn of the century. It literally uses smoke and mirrors and old-school effects so that when something is happening in front of you, when a ghost is dancing before your eyes, it feels real, it feels tactile, it feels like you could reach out and touch it.
“And I think that’s so much of why we all give into the fantasy of that ride. And I think that was probably the most important thing I felt that we should adapt from the ride, the sense of not being quite sure where the physical reality ends and where something else starts to take over.”
