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With Eddie Murphy, Terence Stamp, Nathaniel Parker, Marsha Thomason. A realtor and his wife and children are summoned to a mansion, which they soon discover is haunted, and while they attempt to escape, he learns an important lesson about the family he has neglected.
- (57K)
- Comedy, Family, Fantasy
- Rob Minkoff
- 2003-11-26
The Haunted Mansion (2003) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more.
Loosely based on Walt Disney 's theme park attraction of the same name, the film stars Eddie Murphy as a realtor who, along with his family, becomes trapped in the titular building. Terence Stamp, Wallace Shawn, Marsha Thomason and Jennifer Tilly appear in supporting roles.
- Overview
- Plot
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- Trivia
- References
is a 2003 American fantasy comedy horror film based on the Disney theme park attraction of the same name. Directed by Rob Minkoff, the film is written by David Berenbaum and stars Eddie Murphy, Terence Stamp, Nathaniel Parker, Marsha Thomason, and Jennifer Tilly.
was theatrically released in the United States on November 26, 2003, by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. The film received negative reviews from critics but performed well at the box office, grossing $182.3 million worldwide against a $90 million budget. Despite its initial reviews, the film has grown into a cult following over the years. The Haunted Mansion was released on VHS and DVD on April 20, 2004. The film was released on Blu-Ray on October 17, 2006, was later released on the Disney+ streaming service.
In the nineteenth century, wealthy landowner Gracey is the proprietor of Gracey Manor. When he falls in love with a multiracial woman named Elizabeth, the Gracey family butler Ramsley views his actions to be disgraceful and misleads Gracey into believing that his love spurned him. Gracey later hangs himself in despair after believing her death by poison to be suicide when he reads a letter which supposedly was addressed to him by Elizabeth wherein fact, the letter was penned by Ramsley himself.
In the present day, successful realtors Jim and Sara Evers own a real estate firm and are happily married with two children, Megan and Michael. However, Jim's workaholism and continuous pursuit for new business deals causes him to have little time for his family. After missing his own wedding anniversary to seal a business deal, Jim makes amends to his family that they go on a weekend away to a nearby lake. Before they can go on the trip, Sara is contacted by the occupants of Gracey Manor, located in the bayou swamps of New Orleans. An eager Jim drags his family along to do business at the house. They meet Master Gracey, his stern butler Ramsley, and two servants Emma and Ezra.
Gracey invites the family to stay the night after a rainstorm floods the river. Jim is taken to the library by Ramsley to discuss the deal with Gracey but when he waits, he becomes trapped in a secret passageway. Michael and Megan encounter a "ghost ball" which leads them to the mansion's attic where they find a portrait of a woman resembling Sara and are confronted by Ezra and Emma, the latter revealing the woman's name as Elizabeth. Sara converses with Master Gracey in the library and as the latter gives her a tour of the mansion, he explains that his ancestor's lover Elizabeth Henshaw seemingly committed suicide via poison, and his ancestor followed suit via hanging despite their plans to wed.
While trying to find a way out, Jim encounters a Romani woman named Madame Leota, whose head is encased in a crystal ball. After briefly being scared away, Jim and his children return to her for answers of Elizabeth's likeness to Sara. They eventually learn that all of the mansion's residents are actually ghosts, cursed a century ago by Gracey and Elizabeth's suicides and can only move to Heaven when they are reunited, and Gracey believes Sara is Elizabeth's reincarnation.
In order to break the curse, Madame Leota sends the Evers family, minus Sara, into the mansion's expansive cemetery to fetch a key that Madame Leota claims will reveal the truth behind Elizabeth's unusual death; the Evers encounter the mansion's residents during a carriage ride through the burial grounds. They meet the singing busts to ask for the location of a mausoleum, which holds the said key, but the busts respond only in songs. With Megan eventually locating the mausoleum, she and Jim venture to a crypt beneath it and locate the key, but inadvertently disturb all of the mausoleum's undead residents. They escape unharmed with Michael's help, the latter overcoming his arachnophobia.
Madame Leota leads the family to a trunk in the attic, where Jim finds an old letter from Elizabeth to Edward with the promise of marriage, revealing that her suicide was false. Ramsley appears and reveals himself to be the mastermind of the curse and that he murdered Elizabeth with a poisoned goblet of wine to prevent Master Gracey from abandoning his home and heritage, believing that their relationship was unacceptable due to Elizabeth herself being a woman of color. To hide the truth, he traps the children in a trunk and literally throws Jim out of the mansion, enchanting the mansion to prevent Jim from breaking in.
•Eddie Murphy as Jim Evers
•Terence Stamp as Ramsley
•Nathaniel Parker as Master Edward Gracey
•Marsha Thomason as Sara Evers
•Marsha Thomason also portrays Elizabeth Henshaw
•Jennifer Tilly as Madame Leota
This wasn't the first attempt at adapting The Haunted Mansion into a film. Back during the early 1990's, screenwriters Jim Hill and Sheila Greenberg pitched a script to then Walt Disney Pictures head Jeffrey Katzenberg, who, at that time, was interested in adapting Disney Parks rides into movies. The mythology and myth-laden script circled through the studio for several months, but was dropped due to the box-office failure of the supernaturally-based comedy, Hocus Pocus.
In 1997, the project was picked up again, this time by Keystone Productions. It was not, however, a theatrical release, but rather, as a TV movie to be shown on "The Wonderful World of Disney" in the Fall of 1998. However, Keystone's other theme park TV movie, Tower of Terror, didn't pull in decent enough ratings, which resulted in both ABC and Keystone dropping the project.
•Early teasers for the film featured an entirely different Mansion architecturally, which was referred to as the "Gracey Mansion".
•This was the first film to air on Disney Channel to contain any profanity besides "hell" or "damn". It also contained the phrase "Big ass termites!", uttered by Murphy.
•The original concept for the film's setting was Upstate New York, with the mansion's exterior modeled after the Walt Disney World version. However, to keep the faithfulness of the original attraction's location in New Orleans Square, the producers changed the setting to New Orleans, Louisiana.
•To allude to the two versions of the attraction and create a more foreboding atmosphere, the production enlarged the film mansion, basing its designs on the original attraction in Disneyland while adding the iron and glass conservatory from both the Walt Disney World and Tokyo versions on its side. Rob Minkoff described it as Renaissance-influenced antebellum and Dutch colonial revival style.
•The film's mansion's antebellum structure is a reference to the original incarnation in Disneyland and its location in the bayous of the state of Louisiana and the movie's setting in the same state is an allusion to the Disneyland attraction being part of New Orleans Square.
•The Dutch colonial revival style is a reference to the WDW and Tokyo versions due to the iron/glass conservatory exterior being a nod to them. The design of cupola also acts as an evidence to this although the windows themselves are based on the Disneyland version.
1.http://www.doombuggies.com/movie_hill.php
2.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc9Zgpttc3M
Once the Evers family arrive at the mansion, a torrential thunderstorm of mysterious origin strands them with the brooding, eccentric Gracey, his mysterious butler, and a variety of residents both seen and unseen.
Cast [] Eddie Murphy as Jim Evers, a successful but workaholic real estate agent who is often late for family gatherings, but tries his best to make up for it. Terence Stamp as Ramsley, the mysterious butler of Gracey Manor who serves as a fatherly figure to Master Gracey.
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Jul 28, 2023 · Murphy led the cast as Jim Evers and was joined by Marsha Thomason, Wallace Shawn, Jennifer Tilly and Dina Spybey-Waters — to name a few. Now, fans will get a chance to meet a new cast...
