Credit: Inside the MagicWe’re getting the very first look at Jamie Lee Curtis as an extremely popular character in Disney’s upcoming Haunted Mansion (2023).
We’re just two months away from Disney’s latest attraction-turned-film; Haunted Mansion, which is set to be released in theaters on July 28. Earlier in the Spring, we got the film’s poster and the very first trailer, ramping up excitement from viewers and hopes that this will be a more faithful adaptation of the attraction than the 2003 film starring Eddie Murphy. IMDB describes the film’s premise:
A single mom named Gabbie and her 9-year-old son, who are looking to start a new life, move into a strangely affordable mansion in New Orleans, only to discover that the place is much more than they bargained for. Desperate for help, they contact a priest, who, in turn, enlists the aid of a widowed scientist-turned-failed-paranormal expert, a French Quarter psychic, and a crotchety historian to help exorcise the mansion.
Directed by Justin Simien with a screenplay by Katie Dippold, the film has an all-star cast, including Rosario Dawson, LaKeith Stanfield, Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, Danny DeVito, Jared Leto, Jamie Lee Curtis, Winona Ryder, Dan Levy, and Hasan Minhaj. There are a lot of fantastic performers playing popular characters to look forward to, including Jared Leto taking a turn as the Hatbox Ghost, but fans are perhaps most excited for Academy Award winner Jame Lee Curtis’ portrayal of the crystal ball medium, Madame Leota.
Though we got a look at a human version of Jamie Lee Curtis in the trailer, Entertainment Weekly has given us the first look at the ghostly form we all know and love. We are absolutely blown away by her appearance and left wondering what happens to her throughout the course of the film that we see her both as a human AND as a ghost!
Here she is, in all of her crystal ball glory.
Her depiction seems to be extremely faithful to how she appears in the ride, right down to her flowing blue hair. Simien explained that this was important to him, as was the appropriate gravitas. He described to Entertainment Weekly, “She starts off as one of the relics, one of the items, one of the aspects of the house that has to be discovered, but becomes a functional character and a useful ally in the film.”
Simien also described Leto’s Hatbox Ghost as “terrifying and menacing” and continued to discuss how important it was to him to be faithful to the original attraction. “We got down to the point where we were obsessing over the angle you first see the mansion when you walk onto the ride in Disneyland when we see it through the gates, and we see the pillars. That angle has to hit. That’s how specific we were,” he says. “When you first glide through the dining hall, and you see the waltzing dancers, that angle had to be right because that’s the one where you gasp on the ride.”
Haunted Mansion will be released in theaters on July 28.