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Jan 11, 2024

'Haunted Mansion' Image: Danny DeVito Is on the Case

The upcoming film will haunt theaters in July. If fans are unable to make it to

The upcoming film will haunt theaters in July.

If fans are unable to make it to one of Disney's various theme parks this summer, they'll still be able to get a taste of one of their most popular attractions with the upcoming film Haunted Mansion, based upon one of the parks' staple rides. The film boasts an all-star cast including Danny DeVito, who appears in a newly released image from the film as Bruce - a professor and paranormal enthusiast.

Haunted Mansion has a star-studded cast including the likes of LaKeith Stanfield, Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, and recent Oscar-winner Jaime Lee Curtis, as a single mother enlists the help of a team of so-called experts in order to rid her new home of unwanted paranormal activity. The film also stars Rosario Dawson, who sees another high-profile release this August when the Star Wars series Ahsoka premieres on Disney+.

One of Haunted Mansion's biggest names is Danny DeVito, who appears in the new image decked out in a raincoat and hat - he said to Empire, "I’m shrink-wrapped into this. I’m like a piece of meat in this." The dashing look is apparently befitting of his character in the film, as he explained, "as soon as I saw it, I said, ‘This is my whole character in a nutshell, right?’ He's very, very particular." The actor joked that he was drawing upon his own unsettling experiences with the "unknown", saying "yesterday I was just sitting around, working on something, and I saw this bird. Now I’ve seen that bird several times. I don't know if it's the same bird, but I got a feeling it may be... you could say, it's a coincidence, but if something happens again and again and again, is it a sign? How do you interpret it?"

RELATED: 'Haunted Mansion' Scares Up a PG-13 Rating

This isn't the first time the fan favorite Disney attraction has been granted the big-screen treatment, as 2003 saw the release of the Eddie Murphy-lead The Haunted Mansion, which also starred the likes of Marsha Thomason, Terence Stamp, and Jennifer Tilly. That film, however, was met with a less-than-stellar critical reception to say the least (it currently holds a score of a measly 14% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes), despite being a hit at the box office; the film grossed $182.3 million worldwide against its $90 million budget. The new film will no doubt be looking to improve upon its predecessor - director Justin Simien reflected on that film's shortcomings, telling Entertainment Weekly that he "had a little bit of beef with the first film", confessing that he "looked at [the film] a lot, mostly to see how easy it would be to go awry in certain spots" during the production of his version.

Haunted Mansion will be released into theaters on July 28. Check out the film's trailer below:

Luke Dawe is a London based news writer, musician and drag performer. When not writing for Collider - @lukejdawe on twitter - Luke can be found wearing wigs at @bbxface.