For the last couple of years, Disney has been mulling over making Magic Kingdom, based on an idea brought to them by Battlestar Galactica’s Ron Moore. The movie would basically be Night At The Museum, but based in Disney’s famous theme park, with the rides coming to life at night rather than museum exhibits.
However while the idea has obvious attractions to Disney chiefs, it’s been kept on the back-burner, partly because of the pitfalls – after all, if the movie fails spectacularly, it could dent the reputation of the massively money-spinning parks, something nobody wants. However it appears the House Of Mouse thinks they’ve found a way to move forward, signing Jon Favreau to a development deal for the flick.
While he’ll also be attached to direct, that’s more tentative, as the idea is to get the Iron Man and Cowboys & Aliens director to first oversee development on the movie, working with a new writer who will rehash Moore’s script. It still seems though that while they love the idea of a Magic Kingdom movie, Disney still isn’t quite ready to fully commit. However they feel that by drawing in A-list talent to work with them, it’ll give them the best shot to make a movie that won’t just feel like a cheap Disney-character-filled rip-off of Night At The Museum.
If done right, it could make a mint in the cinema and give new life to aging attractions that currently nobody really cares about (and which they couldn’t make a film of in its own right, as they did with Pirates of the Caribbean). as well as potentially bringing new cinematic life to Disney’s stable of cartoon characters, who rarely get a proper outing these days. Favreau would seem to be the man for the job, although whether Disney will bite the bullet and make the movie is yet to be seen, especially as the development deal seems to assume shooting the Magic Kingdom is a few years away at least. (Source: Deadline)