Favreau and Chambon bring The Magic Kingdom to life

Following on from news of Disney’s THE MATTAHORN hitting the big screen, Jon Favreau (director/chauffeur of IRON MAN) is to direct a movie based on and in Disney’s MAGIC KINGDOM. Favreau will team up with writer Michael Chambon (author of the brilliant THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY) to bring the world what has been described by Disney as A NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM in the MAGIC KINGDOM, according the hollywoodreporter.com

Chambon is a surprise choice to pen what could be a massive blockbuster, as his cerebral oeuvre doesn’t lend itself to zany cartoon escapades. But apparently he is quite the Disney buff, and Favreau has shown his metal with IRON MAN (I’m so so sorry) and can handle the big time franchises. The questions are legion; if the film revolves around the Magic Kingdom attractions coming alive, does that mean that PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN and THE HAUNTED MANSION will play a part? Will Captain Jack or Eddie Murphy be involved? Will our Disney heroes be CG or guys in suits? Or ROGER RABBIT style animation?

Personally, I’m hoping for some gritty photo-real CG, with Mickey, Donald et all being rendered so realistically that it’s quite upsetting to look at.

There is of course a colourful history of Disney theme park rides being turned into movies. POTC is the of course benchmark, but surprisingly the aforementioned HAUNTED MANSION is not the lowest point. The adaptation of the TOWER OF TERROR starring THN favourite Steve ‘The Gutt’ Guttenberg has to rank as the stinkiest fish to swim out of the Disney stream.

Still, with Guillermo Del Toro helming the soon to be made HAUNTED MANSION reboot (oh CHRIST I love a reboot!) it looks like the bods at Disney are over their theme park movie issues. Either that or Del Toro, Favreau and Chambon are all planning a Guttenberg career revival. If that is the case… then may God have mercy on us all.