Disney’s “Space Mountain” has been reignited.
Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec, whose credits including “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” and the two Michael Bay-produced live-action “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” films, have been hired to write a new screenplay based on the beloved Disney Parks attraction, TheWrap has learned.
Jonathan Eirich from Rideback is producing the feature, along with Joby Harold (who wrote an earlier iteration of the project) and Tory Tunnell of Safehouse. Ryan Halprin of Rideback is executive producing.
The original Space Mountain opened as the centerpiece of the Magic Kingdom’s version of Tomorrowland in 1975, part of the expansive Walt Disney World resort outside of Orlando, Fla. The ride is known for its strikingly graphic design — comprised of a cone and spires that jut heavenward (and can be seen as part of John Hench’s early concept art) — and its thrilling, coaster-in-the-dark aesthetic. A version of the attraction opened in Disneyland in 1977, the same summer as “Star Wars,” and the line snaked from the attraction down Main Street. Since then, versions of the attraction have opened at Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland.
A movie version of the attraction has been in the works since at least the early 2000s, with Max Landis penning a version with horror elements; where inhabitants of a retro-future society use space travel that costs them their souls (Kind of cool, right?). Since then, a number of attempts have been made to adapt the property.
Following the success of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, Disney has tried to replicate the based-on-a-theme-park structure, most recently with the Dwayne Johnson/Emily Blunt “Jungle Cruise” and last summer’s “Haunted Mansion” with Rosario Dawson and LaKeith Stanfield. There are other projects in various states of development based on the Tower of Terror, Big Thunder Mountain and Figment (from EPCOT’s Imagination Pavilion), along with a series of interconnected Disney+ series overseen by “For All Mankind” creator Ron Moore.
Appelbaum and Nemec have recently worked on television projects like “Cowboy Bebop,” “From,” “Citadel” and “High Fidelity.”
Remember to keep your arms inside the vehicle.
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