Watch: Disney's 1997 'Tower Of Terror' Starring Steve Guttenberg & Kirsten Dunst; John August Hired To Pen New Film

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Disney's penchant for turning theme park rides into movies didn't start with "Pirates Of The Caribbean" (though, that is when they began spending insane piles of money on such fare). Back in 1997, they made their first real attempt with the made-for-TV "Tower Of Terror" starring Steve Guttenberg and Kristen Dunst. Someone named D.J. MacHale wrote and directed the movie and didn't do much since, and the movie itself hasn't really lived on either. But the mouse house will start over.

Deadline reports that John August ("Big Fish, "Dark Shadows") has been hired to write a new movie based on the spooky theme park ride. There's no word yet on what the actual plot might entail, except that it will be a "haunted house" movie, so let your imagination run wild that. As for that 1997 movie, it followed a rumpled journalist and his niece who investigate the mysterious secret of behind the...