A few years ago, back in 2012, Disney considered making a Space Mountain film. They had success with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, and wanted to consider other ride-movie tie-ins.
Max Landis had written a Space Mountain screenplay and Disney bought it. Production was going to go forward and then Disney purchased Lucasfilm and started working on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. One space film was apparently enough at the time and they dropped the Space Mountain movie.
A couple of days ago Max posted some information about the abandoned film on Twitter.
if you’re curious about my long-dead Space Mountain project at Disney that I mentioned on @JennyENicholson‘s show, here’s some concept art. pic.twitter.com/zjy68WK5V1
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) September 25, 2017
The entire project was retro future aesthetic; rocket ships and ray guns, but no cell phones or internet.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) September 25, 2017
In an interview on Jenny Nicholson’s show on Screen Junkies he discussed his original plans. Apparently the rocket ships did run on roller coaster tracks. “The Space Mountains took you on tracks and that was the only way you could move faster than light.”
He talks about how he was inspired by the “surf” music in Space Mountain. “I wanted to a movie where like people said Gee Whiz but the stakes were still huge.”
In his concept people would travel at light speed but when you came back from light speed you were 9.5 grams lighter than when you left. “When you came back you would seem normal, and then slowly over the course, of like a day, it turns out that the human soul can’t travel at light speed so whole ships come back with people who have no souls, who are still acting like themselves but then they turn into these horrible monsters.”
It’s a neat idea. I wonder if they will ever revisit a Space Mountain ride.
*fun fact*
It might seem like the “soul weight” idea is a new one, but once upon a time in 1901, Dr. Duncan MacDougall, in Dorchester, Massachusetts, conducted experiments where he claimed the human soul had a weight of 21 grams. He weighed six dying patients, just prior to their death with specially made weight scales. Then he would weigh them again after they died. The discrepancy ranged a but, but he claimed that when a person died they lost 3/4 of an ounce in weight, or 21 grams.
Then he tried the same experiment on dogs and found that there was no change in weight. He claimed that dogs didn’t have souls so their weight didn’t change. Of course there were a lot of issues with the parameters of these experiments, so they weren’t widely recognized.
What do you think about his Space Mountain film idea? Comment and let us know!
Sources: Historic Mysteries, Inside the Magic, Screen Junkies,
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