There are few things as endearing as watching Guillermo lament not being able to swipe some Disney artifacts while visiting the archives, simply because he was being watched.

This comes from an interview with MTV where Del Toro catches us up to the status of Haunted Mansion, which he appears to be quite actively developing while bringing Pacific Rim through production. At present the second draft of the script is complete, and the production is amassing the visual bible for the film, which includes storyboards, maquettes, and concept art. GDT says it’s going “great,” which is pleasant to hear, as without word on the project this definitely feels like one of those things that could slip by the wayside.

I’ve mentioned before that Disney seems to have bought more than just controlling interesting in Marvel, as they are putting in motion plans to exploit the wide universe at their disposal in a particularly comic-like way. This all of course revolves around Jon Favreau’s Magic Kingdom film, which will bring the Disney characters and theme park to life anew. I must admit that it’s never occurred to me that a Guillermo-produced Haunted Mansion might be an opportunity for crossover. Of course, I’m still not sure exactly what this Magic Kingdom film will do– will we see a Depp cameo as Captain Jack? Kosinski light-cycles zooming around?

We might see some familiar Haunted Mansion imagery at least…

“I told Jon that if he can use some of the stuff, and I can use some of his stuff, and make it a cohesive universe, that would be fantastic.”

And since the ride will ultimately end up reflecting imagery from the movie in the future, this makes even more sense.

I’m happy to hear some project updates from Del Toro, but really it’s time for that motherfucker to be on a set yelling “action” and ordering gates to be checked.

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