Disney's Tower of Terror

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Disney's Tower of Terror

Post by Daniel » June 23rd, 2021, 2:25 pm

Film adaptation of the theme park attraction in the works:
Toy Story 4 director and Inside Out scribe Josh Cooley is currently writing the script, though plot details are being kept under wraps somewhere on the tower's top floor. Johansson will produce via her company These Pictures alongside Jonathan Lia, and though there's no director formally attached yet, Disney will aim high, according to sources -- especially since Johansson is coming off of dual Oscar nominations for her stellar work in Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit in addition to her high-profile turn in Marvel's Black Widow.
Could be cool. I'm game.

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Re: Disney's Tower of Terror

Post by EricJ » June 23rd, 2021, 2:57 pm

Guess they had to update the old '97 TV-movie from when the ride first had only one drop, and more backstory.

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Re: Disney's Tower of Terror

Post by Dacey » June 23rd, 2021, 3:40 pm

I think I actually recall the TV film…being pretty good? At least by network TV movie standards?

This will obviously have a much-bigger budget, though, and probably a PG-13 rating to boot.
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Re: Disney's Tower of Terror

Post by Daniel » June 23rd, 2021, 3:57 pm

I remember enjoying it. Needs to be added to Disney+!

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Re: Disney's Tower of Terror

Post by Ben » June 23rd, 2021, 4:53 pm

As long as they bring back Steve Guttenberg… ;)

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Re: Disney's Tower of Terror

Post by EricJ » June 23rd, 2021, 6:28 pm

Of course, it doesn't help that Disney now has only ONE Tower in their US parks, since the west-coast Disneyland one was Guardians of the Galaxy-rehabbed for the new Marvel area.

But they'd had the project around since all the attempts at a Jungle Cruise movie, so now that they'd finished that one...

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Re: Disney's Tower of Terror

Post by Daniel » August 11th, 2021, 2:40 pm

Film has been canceled. Of course it could always come back from the dead. Shame.

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Re: Disney's Tower of Terror

Post by Dacey » August 11th, 2021, 3:30 pm

I mean, the current lawsuit made this sort of inevitable...

That said, "cutting all ties with her" is amazingly stupid move on Disney's part from a PR standpoint. This is going to backfire on them in a huge way.
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Re: Disney's Tower of Terror

Post by Ben » August 11th, 2021, 6:27 pm

Maybe so, but the optics are not good for ScarJo either, and this is more about sending out a signal to anyone else thinking of lawsuits: don’t play nice with us and your sequel/pet projects/future with the company is over.

Ultimately, this is about a bad deal that Scarlett's people made, where she likely didn’t get any of the D+ backend. Disney was a bit silly making the big announcement about how much they made, which likely spurred the "wait, I don’t get any of that?", but if she’d been smart, she’d have made a move for some tiny project to be made as a favor for losing out on Widow, or negotiate a bigger, guaranteed payday for the next film. But as it is, she's going to clear at least $30m on Black Widow, plus future residuals — and this at a time when many below the line freelance people (yours truly included) have not worked or earned a single penny since the pandemic began. Oh to have earned $30m+ and been guaranteed future work…!

ScarJo was an exec producer on Widow, but that was largely a vanity credit. On Cruella and Jungle Cruise, their stars were producers (and in Johnson's case on Cruise, he did actually *produce* the movie). They all had better deals and in all likelihood were a part of the decision to shift to D+. Emma Stone will get a Cruella sequel and payday out of it. Cruise will probably get a sequel. Both will get guarantees for theatrical releases and larger participation. I do know what went on with Artemis Foul [sic] and that these conversations happen and lead to future "understandings", hence why Death On The Nile has been held back for a guaranteed exclusive theatrical release and how a third Poirot is already being worked on. Yes, it’s all business, but it’s also all about relationships and basically playing ball for both sides to make the most of a bad situation.

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Re: Disney's Tower of Terror

Post by Randall » August 12th, 2021, 2:18 am

Bottom line: Disney and ScarJo will both be just fine. Neither needs the other.

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Re: Disney's Tower of Terror

Post by Ben » August 12th, 2021, 4:55 am

Not anymore… ;)

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Re: Disney's Tower of Terror

Post by Bill1978 » August 13th, 2021, 12:55 am

Look I know Disney has always been a business and all about the money but I swear every since Disney+ launched *and the arrival of the pandemic) my view of the company has really really sunk. And now their little tantrum over an actor suing them.. From trying to frame them as the villain for wanting more money during a pandemic to just cutting ties cause they had the audacity to ask for some of the profits from their Premier Access, the company of Disney is really leaving a sour taste in my mouth and is one of the reasons I refuse to pay 30 bucks for PA.

I know Scarlett has lost some future business with Disney but it makes me wonder if she knew more than what we did and thought what the hell I got nothing else to lose when she decided to sue them. Although honestly, I think the only movies I've ever seen Scarlett in are the Marvel property movies and maybe some voice work. So I guess this news desn't really hit me as hard as it would a ScarJo fan .

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Re: Disney's Tower of Terror

Post by Ben » August 13th, 2021, 1:22 am

I totally agree on Disney.

As good as he has been for the expansion of the company, in making it future proof by scaling it up, what was known as The Walt Disney Company has slowly been eroding away since Bob Iger took the reigns, and it’s basically the Marvel/Star Wars Company now. The name Walt hardly even gets a mention anymore.

How ironic that the Eisner era will eventually be looked back on as the period when Disney was still Disney, or even still Walt Disney, when the history and legacy of the company was still as important as its future. EuroDisney, now Disneyland Paris, felt fresh and exciting, and like a natural progression to the Disney Parks around the world, but each new park after that just feels like a factory copy. Likewise the whole Star Warsication of Disneyland, and the debacle of the sequel trilogy shows all too clearly that chasing the buck has overridden the need to take care with stories in its thirst for speed and getting ever larger.

It’s funny, as I was just contemplating this the other morning, but Iger's tenure was definitely a transitional period, especially in the last few years — ever since Roy passed — and now we have a totally different company to what he stepped in to. It bears the Disney name, and uses the Disney logo, but it isn’t Disney anymore. Even the famed "magic" is fake manufactured computer generated imagery these days, and not Tinkerbell-authentic fairy dust. The second star to the right has burned out, and Tink is back with the Lost Boys (Walt, Roy, Roy Jr, Ward, Wolfgang, Milt, etc…)…

I still love the company, and want it to succeed and survive as whatever kind of memorial to Walt that it is these days, but now it doesn’t build on what came before anymore, and just regurgitates carbon copies of what it’s done before. Certainly Bob Chapek is an enigma: we never see him, he’s not a public figurehead as Walt, Eisner or even Iger was, and he doesn’t really seem the safe pair of hands or creative business visionary that Eisner and Iger were. Never has the phrase "what would Walt have done?" been so appropriate, although in this case it’s not so much trying to second guess a genius, but more about just trying to do what they think Walt would have done over and over and over. That’s if, if anyone remembers who Walt was now.

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Re: Disney's Tower of Terror

Post by ShyViolet » August 13th, 2021, 1:49 am

Yes, all too true sadly…. :(

And as insane as this may sound, I can’t help but wonder how many more years Mickey has left as the universal stamp of Disney. If Walt himself has faded so much into history, how much longer will his alter ego last?

How do we KNOW that Spider-Man or who knows, maybe even Deadpool , won’t become company mascots twenty years from now??
You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!

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Re: Disney's Tower of Terror

Post by Ben » August 13th, 2021, 4:49 am

Oh, Mickey's kind of already gone, Vi. Since he became a preschooler, he epitomises just the young young kids' face of the company now, perhaps not even as much so as Winnie The Pooh. :(

Disney now is just all about that castle and what is trapped inside, be they Disney originals or bought in. The fact that they didn’t really vertically integrate Star with any clever "When you wish upon a Star" marketing speaks volumes about the past now just being the past and little more. And Mickey's just one of many characters. When was the last time you heard if referred to as the Mouse House outside fan circles…?

I can’t see anyone else becoming a new face (and certainly not Spidey or Deadpool in twenty years, when those franchises will have been burned out and awaiting a comeback), but if they do keep going with castles and magic and star motifs, then don't count out Tinkerbell out just yet: Mickey may have been the mascot and the mouse that started it all, but Tink has been the alternate figurehead of the brand itself since the 1950s television days, and still seems to fly around that castle pretty well. :)

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