Popular Disney theme park ride Tower of Terror looks to be getting the big screen treatment over at the Mouse House. Disney has a history of turning their theme park attractions into feature films, proven by four Pirates of the Caribbean movies (and fifth on the way), 2003’s The Haunted Mansion (starring Eddie Murphy), Tomorrowland (starring George Clooney) and planned Jungle Cruise film in works as a vehicle for Dwayne Johnson.
The attraction- featured at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s California Adventure- is a nerve-tingling drop tower dark ride where guests ride in an elevator car. The ride is armed with the backdrop of Rod Sterling’s classic anthology series The Twilight Zone and tells the story of the mysterious disappearing of guest from a hotel elevator. While is the ride is presented as a sort of lost episode of The Twlight Zone (complete with retrofitted Sterling introduction), the movie will have nothing to do with whatsoever. However, the movie’s premise will be similar as it follows five people who disappear while riding a hotel elevator after it is struck by lightning. John August (Big Fish, Frankenweenie) contributed a treatment for Tower of Terror and will produce the project alongside Jim Whitaker. The next step in the process will be finding a screenwriter.
Incidentally, if Tower of Terror makes it to the big screen, it wouldn’t be the first time Disney has used this attraction as a basis for a film. In 1997, Disney produced the also titled Tower of Terror, a television adaptation starring Steve Guttenberg and Kirsten Dunst. At the time, it was reportedly a “test” movie for Disney to see if more adaptations based on their theme park rides would work in the future. While thus far only one franchise (Pirates) has grown out of this trend, the test appears to have worked.
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