Walt Disney Studios has released the first trailer for its upcoming “Haunted Mansion” film, and it includes familiar scenes and spooky elements also seen in the dark theme park ride.
The movie, which hits theaters July 28, is set in New Orleans, making the exterior scenes more in line with the Haunted Mansion attraction in Disneyland, which opened in Anaheim, California, in 1969, two years before its sister ride opened in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.
Spotted in the 1 minute, 45-second preview: hatchet-wielding Constance, the bride in the attic; a clanking suit of armor; a stretching room scene; distinctive wallpaper; a clock with hands moving in opposite directions; the organist from the ride’s ballroom scene; and a graveyard. There are screeching sound effects and Roy Orbison eerily sings “House Without Windows.”
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The tagline is “Home is where the haunt is.”
Jamie Lee Curtis plays Madame Leota, who is seen briefly — and full-bodied — in the trailer. Actors getting a lot of face time in the clip include Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Tiffany Hadish and LaKeith Stanfield. Others connected to the film, some perhaps as cameos, include Jared Leto, Winona Ryder, Dan Levy and Hasan Minhaj.
At a D23 Expo event last year, Justin Simien, the film’s director, revealed that he was a former cast member.
“It was the best summer job I ever had,” said Simien, whose previous directing credits include “Dear White People” and “Bad Hair.”
But as a self-proclaimed Haunted Mansion fanboy, he said he felt a responsibility while directing the film.
“I gotta make sure all the little details, all the Easter eggs are there. … I’m a nerd, for real,” Simien said.
The new film is not connected with the 2003 film of the same name, which starred Eddie Murphy.
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