We reported a few months ago that Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon was rumored to write the script for Disney’s upcoming film Magic Kingdom. As of this past week, the rumors have proved to be true, and Chabon has officially signed on as screenwriter of the film. Jon Favreau, as previously announced, will direct. Work on the film is apparently well underway, and while few details about the film’s story have been released, the film will take place at Disneyland and “may even be connected to other parks worldwide.”
Director Jon Favreau also recently discussed some aspects about his work on the film at the Los Angeles Times Hero Complex Film Festival. He described some of the research he’s been doing for the film, which us Disney fans can’t help but be jealous of:
I’ve been hanging out with the Imagineers, especially Tony Baxter who is the main dude whose been there for decades. They called up and said ‘Do you want to go on the after dark tour?’ And they said, ‘Where do you want to go? We don’t close till midnight so why don’t we have dinner at the Blue Bayou or Club 33,’ I said ‘Blue Bayou is fine,’ and then we’ll wait until the park closes, we’ll hang out at Walt’s apartment over the fire station. It’s untouched and the baby bottles are still there, pictures of him and his wife are there and it’s over the lookout and you see down into the park. And then when it closed they say ‘Okay, where do you want to go?’ ‘I don’t know, Pirates?’ ‘Okay Pirates.’ They open up Pirates [of the Caribbean] and there you are walking behind the sets and over the bridges and The Haunted Mansion? All the things I grew up saying ‘How did they do that?’ And now I’m looking at the way they do it.
In addition to his work on the Magic Kingdom script, Chabon also worked on Disney’s upcoming John Carter film and the studio’s Snow White project The Order of the Seven. He is also writing the book for Disney Theatricals’ Broadway-bound Dumbo musical.
