Hey folks, Harry here... Images like these break the heart... the production design on this film is supposed to just be breathtaking, and from the looks of the grounds, the exterior of the house "pre-cg extensions" this just looks wonderful... Until we know that it is Eddie Murphy running around the house like a modern day Mantan Moreland doing his eyes all buggy and screaming and cracking up jokes... or at least that's what I fear it is. I'd love to be wrong. I'd love for this to be wonderfully melancholy film of atmosphere and sadness... A place with nearly a 1000 ghosts, that many having died in that place? And we turn it into a comedy? Sigh... Here ya go...
Hey Harry,
Lonestarr here. Longtime reader, first time...yeah, yeah, whatever.
I just recently visited the set of Disney's upcoming film "The Haunted Mansion" based on the famous ride at Disneyland, and have some pics to share. The site of the exterior sets are located at Sable Ranch in Santa Clarita, CA - a beautiful rural area north of Los Angeles. I'm not too privy to the story except that Eddie Murphy was here shooting the other evening and graciously greeting local fans and signing autographs. As for the mansion facade itself it differs in design to the original ride at the Disney theme park(s), but was pretty cool nevertheless. But I was most impressed with the graveyard set adjacent to the mansion - the realistic-looking gravestones and crypts all lined along large, brooding trees with fake moss hanging from them - very impressive. Just a stones toss away from the site is where the remake of "The Time Machine" was filmed, where the bamboo Eloi village was located. In fact, portions of the "bamboo forest" still stand where the production crew stuck them in the ground.
Oh yeah, the haunted mansion...recent heavy California rains flooded out the grounds as shown, however it just added to the eeriness of it. But, as they say, the show must go on...
More later.
