Disney Set to Produce Live-Action Movie Based on Space Mountain Theme Park Ride

Disney to Produce Live-Action Space Mountain Movie

Disney is developing a live-action movie based on its famous “Space Mountain” ride, as part of the studio’s efforts to expand its roster of films about its theme park rides.

The studio has chosen Joby Harold — with credits including King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and Zack Snyder’s upcoming Army of the Dead — to write and produce with his spouse Tory Tunnell under their Safehouse Pictures banner. Rideback, headed by Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich, is also set to produce.

Right now, Harold is writing and executive producing the Star Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi series for Disney Plus. He has also executive produced John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.

Space Mountain — an indoor roller coaster ride with an outer space setting — was unveiled at Florida’s Walt Disney World in 1975 as a follow-up to the Matterhorn bobsled ride at the southern California based Disneyland. The ride was a smash hit and was followed up by installations at Disneyland in 1977 and other Disney theme parks. The various incarnations of the ride have taken on different regional flavors. The Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland Parks, for example, have taken on a new Star Wars rebranding since Disney acquired that IP back in 2012.

Disney announced the project on Friday, six weeks after it revealed a new Haunted Mansion live-action movie, which will be based on the classic Disneyland theme park ride. Lin and Eirich, who teamed up on Disney’s live-action Aladdin adaptation last year, are also producing The Haunted Mansion. Disney had previously used the ride as inspiration for its 2003 horror comedy The Haunted Mansion, starring Eddie Murphy. It portrays Murphy as a workaholic realtor who buys a mansion that turns out to be rather spooky.

Disney saw tremendous success from its Pirates of the Caribbean theme park ride, which opened at Disneyland in 1967 and arrived in theaters in 2003. The five Pirates movies, which all starred Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, grossed $1.5 billion domestically and over $3 billion internationally.

In 2002 Disney also released the family oriented comedy Country Bears based on the preexisting Disneyland attraction. The studio is also producing Jungle Cruise starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. The Disneyland ride inspired movie is set to premier on July 30, 2021, which will be a year after its original release date that was pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Harold is repped by Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment and Goodman Genow.

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