DIRECTOR JUSTIN Simien has a history steeped in Disney, he tells SFX. The films he grew up with - Beauty And The Beast, Oliver And Company and The Little Mermaid - were, he says, "a big deal in me figuring out I even wanted to be a filmmaker".
Visiting Disney World "all the time" as a kid - before later working at the theme park (a ride operator at Grizzly River Run in Disneyland, fact fans) while studying at film school - it was Haunted Mansion that was his favourite attraction. Specifically, he was intrigued by the trickery of it all: "When the hitchhiking ghosts are on your arm at the end of the ride, that used to really fuck me up as a kid."
Fortunately, it didn't put him off when reading the script for a new live action movie. "I felt that there was a cultural specificity that I could bring to it that I just always felt was missing from the attraction at Disneyland," he recalls. "You really don't get a sense of the place, but New Orleans in the 1800s is a very specific place. A lot of my ancestors come from that time period; I just had this oddly personal connection to this big blockbuster-y movie.
"The story at its core, it's about moving through this rephase of life. It's about leaning into something dark and finding something on the other side. I was like, 'Wow, I can say all of that in a movie that's fun and entertaining? That's kind of wild.'"
As if he already wasn't one of us, Simien also grew up fanboying for Marvel, Nintendo and Star Wars - so he gets the hardcore fanbase that Haunted Mansion has. It was them - and a ride "Bible" he was given by Disney - that became what he calls a "constant source".
"I feel like it doesn't take a lot," he begins to explain. "It just takes attention to detail, and leaning in to what their conversations are to make the fans happy. I just truly felt like that had to be one of my primary goals.
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