One of the most exciting prospects on Disney’s film slate is Guillermo del Toro’s Haunted Mansion. It’s to be produced and written by him and Disney has touted the film as an upcoming film for months.

Recently, they took it off of their upcoming movie slate, which made many people wonder about the film’s fate. But fear not, as del Toro says it’s very much alive. He told Collider:

I delivered my last draft five weeks ago. I have a meeting with them in three weeks. I know they like the screenplay. I need to meet with them in three weeks. That’s what I know. I know their reaction to the draft was good. We have a bunch of conceptualist art, but you never know, to predict anything else is hard for me to know.

Del Toro’s best guess as to why the film isn’t on the upcoming movie list is because Disney is waiting to see if he’ll direct it. It makes sense, as the film has no release date and only some conceptual art and a script. The only other movie that has a script and concept art is Guardians of the Galaxy, but Marvel already gave that a release date.

Disney definitely wants to make a good Haunted Mansion film, as there’s a ton of content there. And let’s face it, that Eddie Murphy movie is something they want to put behind them as quick as possible.

He still wants to direct the movie too, but he’s not sure what he’s going to do next.

I still would love to make that movie. I came on board originally as a writer and producer, the decision I think they may be waiting, is for me to say I’m directing the movie. Or am I directing it next, which is too early for me to know what I’m doing next in live-action. I’m in the middle of Pacific Rim and I don’t know what I’m going to do next.

It must be said that del Toro is a huge fan of the Haunted Mansion, and that the property is close to his heart. He does have a ton of projects coming up, however. He’s working on his film Pacific Rim for another 10 months, and then he’s got an animated version of Pinocchio to make. My best guess is in that meeting in three weeks, Disney wants to figure out if they should wait for him to direct or move on to someone else that can bring his vision to life (he’ll still serve as producer). [Collider via /Film]

disney, guillermo del toro, haunted mansion