After five years of very little information since it was first announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2010, there is new life for Guillermo del Toro’s reboot of Disney’s Haunted Mansion . It’s not just a little info, either, as there are apparently talks with Ryan Gosling for him to star in the lead role.
According to the Wrap , the Oscar-nominated actor is indeed in talks to star in the film after del Toro moderated a panel at SXSW last month that was for Lost River , Gosling’s directorial debut. That was one of the first signs that the two have gotten a close friendship over the past few months.
Another sign was that over Oscar weekend, del Toro and Gosling were spotted at Disneyland together, where they rode Haunted Mansion together. While there, they also took in Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Space Mountain.
Sure, this could have been them just spending some friendly time together, but there is a good chance they were throwing ideas around, too, for the film based on famous attraction from Disneyland and Walt Disney World .
Not a lot is known about this version of Haunted Mansion , but it was way back in 2010 that the first word of it got out. When Guillermo del Toro announced he was doing it, all he said was that he was a huge fan and gave a very brief teaser trailer.
In August of 2012, Guillermo del Toro revealed that he had delivered a draft five weeks prior and had an upcoming meeting with Disney. He said that the reaction to his script was a positive one, but he wasn’t sure what would happen next.
As always with del Toro, he has numerous projects going on at one time.
“Yeah, I still would love to make that movie. I came on board originally as a writer and producer, the decision I think they may be waiting, is for me to say I’m directing the movie. Or am I directing it next, which is too early for me to know what I’m doing next in live-action. I’m in the middle of Pacific Rim and I don’t know what I’m going to do next.”
Speaking of Pacific Rim , del Toro is currently working on a sequel for that, per Collider . He also has Season 2 of The Strain to work on, and the release of Crimson Peak coming up. Ryan Gosling has Lost River releasing soon and just finished work on Shane Black’s The Nice Guys .
Disney is really hitting a great movie stride with the immense success of Cinderella and live-action versions coming for The Jungle Book , Mulan , Dumbo , Pinocchio , Winnie the Pooh , and Beauty and the Beast . That’s not even mentioning The Avengers: Age of Ultron on May 1 and Ant-Man on July 17.
If both of them could find the time, Guillermo del Toro and Ryan Gosling appear like the pair that could really make the reboot of Disney’s Haunted Mansion something special.
[Image via Disney]