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A Complete Unknown is far from the worst thing you'll see this Christmas season, and many people will probably like it simply because of the various performances.
Posted in: Disney, Movies | Tagged: disney, haunted mansion
Haunted Mansion: Madame Leota Is A "Useful Ally"
We got a look at Jamie Lee Curtis as Madame Leota in Haunted Mansion, and director Justin Simien says she is a "useful ally."
We found out some details about the Haunted Mansion movie in September, including the casting of horror icon Jamie Lee Curtis. However, in the early teasers and trailer, we didn't have a chance to see her version of the infamous Madame Leota. A new image was released on the Disney media website that shows off the character. Director Justin Simien explained to Entertainment Weekly the unlikely role that Leota will play in the story.
"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 explains of Leota.
One of the things that makes the haunted mansion ride so endearing is that it feels like two rides smashed together, and that's because it is. No one could decide if they wanted something legitimately dark and scary, like the first half of the ride, or something more lighthearted and fun, like the second half, so they went with both. Simien acknowledges that the ride balances these two polarizing feelings perfectly to make them work, and he needs to do that again with this movie, or it's not going to work.
"You know there's a trick being played on you, but you're not sure how they did it. The Pepper's Ghost effect [during the ride's finale], it's so old school, you know it's not a screen, but it's because it's so old school that it feels like it's really there," Simien says of the feeling he hopes his Haunted Mansion movie captures. "There's a practicality to the tricks on the ride that I felt was important. When I took the job, I said, 'I don't want to make CGI soup. We have to build the house.' Even if we're not doing an effect practically, we have to make it look like we did because there's something about the grounded-ness of the ride that makes it what it is. It makes it charming."
Whether or not Haunted Mansion will come together, in the end, remains to be seen. The film recently swapped release dates with The Marvels and now has to contend with some major hitters in July, including Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. If they are good, all three of those films can bring in people for multiple weeks. It'll be interesting to see if Haunted Mansion works and if it can find an audience.
Haunted Mansion: Cast List, Summary, Release Date
Disney's comically creepy adventure Haunted Mansion will appear in theaters on July 28. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Justin Simien, the film features an all-star ensemble cast including LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Chase W. Dillon, and Dan Levy, with Jamie Lee Curtis and Jared Leto as The Hatbox Ghost.
Inspired by the classic theme park attraction, Haunted Mansion is about a woman and her son who enlist a motley crew of so-called spiritual experts to help rid their home of supernatural squatters. The film's producers are Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich, with Nick Reynolds and Tom Peitzman serving as executive producers.
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