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With David Greenbaum’s ascendancy to President of Disney live-action, fans were wondering if the era of Disney live-action remakes and Disney Parks film adaptations would survive. For now, it seems like that era will continue despite a change in leadership.
For starters, most recently announced we are getting a Club 33 film. Which Disney Parks fans know Club 33 as the exclusive club at Disneyland that now has outposts at different Disney Parks. Out of all the IP in the Disney Parks, I don’t think anyone suspected this getting a film adaptation. The film is going to be written by Darren Lemke (Shazam!) and produced by Shawn Levy (Deadpool & Wolverine). Club 33 is described as Clue meets Night at the Museum and will have Club 33 be a club with historic members set in a place beyond space and time.
Club 33 is just the latest in Disney Parks film adaptations. Big Thunder Mountain based around Big Thunder Mountain Railroad has been in development for a bit. Michelle and Kieran Mulroney are penning the script, and Hawkeye directors Bert & Bertie are attached. What is more interesting about Big Thunder is that the film is being produced by both Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap Entertainment & Ridley Scott’s Scott Free. Margot Robbie and Ridley Scott won’t be directly apart of this project but man just imagine if they were. Although, Margot has been linked to another prominent Disney franchise (more on that later).
Scarlett Johansson is producing a Tower of Terror film. Disney previously made a Tower of Terror film back in 1997. This film would likely expand the lore of the Tower of Terror attraction and it would probably be directly inspired by The Twilight Zone. Taika Waititi was rumored to be directing this film, but no word on if he’s going to be the guy for this. Also, would Disney be bold enough to not call this film Tower of Terror and maybe just The Hollywood Tower Hotel (what the hotel is technically called)?
Josh Appelbaum & André Nemec (Citadel, Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol) are the new writers on Space Mountain. The rare Disney attraction that is a blank canvas without that much lore attached. The film is expected to be a family adventure although it could go in various different directions as Appelbaum & Nemec write this story. Joby Harold (Obi-Wan Kenobi) was the previous writer and now he’s a producer on the project. Rideback, which produced Aladdin, Haunted Mansion, and the upcoming Lilo & Stitch remake, will produce.
Seth Rogen’s Point Grey is producing Figment, based on the iconic character from Journey into Imagination at EPCOT. Pokémon Detective Pikachu writers Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit are penning the script. Hernandez and Samit also wrote the upcoming LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy and they have another project in the works at Walt Disney Pictures which hasn’t been announced. Perhaps, Rogen will be Dreamfinder in Figment? Who knows but out of all the Disney Parks film adaptations this one has the most potential from a Disney Consumer Products standpoint ($$$).
The Society of Explorers and Adventurers is a group that only Disney Parks superfans know of. It’s essentially a group that connects stories across several Disney Parks attractions and has its greatest ties to The Jungle Cruise. Now Disney is developing two separate projects for the IP. We went long on Ron Moore’s Disney+ series in a previous article. Yet this isn’t stopping Disney from developing a film with Ryan Reynold’s Maximum Effort attached to produce. Raya and the Last Dragon & Strange World screener Qui Nguyen is set to write the film. It’s unclear if Reynolds will star but sources say that the film at least will be a put more mythical and magical than typical S.E.A. fare.
Sidenote: I think I’m going to do an article about all the untapped Disney Parks IP, the studios will be coming after next. If that is something you would like to read please let me know.
Now we can’t do a Disney Parks film adaptation segment without discussing the one that started it all. No not The Country Bears… but Pirates of the Caribbean. Jerry Bruckheimer already confirmed there are two live-action Pirates films in development (read in between the lines 👀). One written by Jeff Nathanson (Young Woman and the Sea, Mufasa: The Lion King), and the other was developed for Margot Robbie with a script from Christina Hodson (The Flash). Disney is also hoping to land a few stars or rising stars for these Pirates films, most notable names we’re Austin Butler (Elvis, Dune: Part Two), Sebastian Stan (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), Ayo Edebiri (The Bear), Karen Gillan (Guardians of the Galaxy), Richard Madden (Eternals), and Jason Momoa (Aquaman). And that’s just who I know I’m sure there are more. Also, Bruckheimer and some folks at Disney seem interested in bringing back Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow for one of the films.
Also, I reported on The DisInsider but the Walt Disney and the building of Disneyland film from David Gordon Green is on pause until they sort out some rights issues. Other Disney Parks film adaptations like it’s a small world and Matterhorn seem stuck in development or dead at this point. Also as we teased before why does live-action have to get all the Disney Parks film adaptations? Could Walt Disney Animation get involved? Maybe that’s another piece for another time.
After Disney live-action pillaged Walt Disney Animation’s library the next stop was always going to be the Disney Parks. Could the Disney Live-Action Remake era turn into the Disney Parks Film Adaptation era? We’re about to find out.
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Zach Perilstein is the Editor-in-Chief of the Boardwalk Times
