Nearly four years ago, we learned Disney was hoping to get a movie about its Space Mountain ride off the ground and into theaters. A lot’s happened since then, but the studio’s apparently still determined to make this a reality, hence bringing on a new pair of writers to get the movie into proper shape.
Per the Hollywood Reporter, Disney’s tapped André Nemec and Josh Appelbaum to pen the live-action adaptation, which was previously being worked on by Joby Harold, then-writer for the Obi-Wan Kenobi series. For better or worse, the duo may best be known for writing and executive producing the two live-action Ninja Turtles movies from the 2010s, along with Netflix’s divisive (to be kind about it) Cowboy Bebop series. Beyond those examples, the pair have teamed up on quite a few things, including Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol, From over on MGM+, and the completely bonkers CBS adaptation of Stephen King’s Zoo.
The Space Mountain ride has been around since 1975, and currently stands as a fixture of the Tomorrowland section of several Disney resorts around the world. But one thing it isn’t is story-driven: there’s no real characters or plot to the whole thing, and THR claims Nemec and Appelbaum are going to use the ride as an inspiration to create an entirely new story, not entirely unlike what Disney did with Pirates of the Carribean back in 2003. In recent years, the ride was also rebranded into Star Wars: Hyperspace Mountain, which may also play a hand in whatever its story becomes?
Disney’s track record with movies based on its rides can kind of be all over the place. Here’s hoping that with an original story of their own creation, Appelbaum and Nemec turn Space Mountain into one of Disney’s better entries into this type of moviemaking only they really do.
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