‘Haunted Mansion’ Director Justin Simien Wants To Adapt Michael Jackson’s ‘Captain EO’ Disney Attraction Into Feature Film

Justin Simien directed Haunted Mansion for Disney based on the theme park’s attraction of the same name. The filmmaker is now opening up about another Disneyland attraction he would like to adapt into a film and it’s Michael Jackson’s Captain EO.

“Captain EO, let’s go,” Simien told Screen Rant during Comic-Con. “Listen, I know it is out of commission, okay? I know that’s not technically a ride, but I am ready. I need some singing and I need some dancing and I need some jerry curl juice in outer space immediately.”

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Captain EO was 3D science fiction short film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and it starred Jackson. George Lucas, Rusty Lemorande and Coppola wrote the script of the short that also starred Anjelica Huston and Dick Shawn.

The film tells the story of Captain EO, played by Jackson, who is on a mission to deliver a gift to the Supreme Leader who lives in a rotting world of twisted metal and steaming vents. The Supreme Leader captures Captain EO’s crew and sentences them to be turned into trash cans. Before Captain EO is sent away to be tortured, he tells the Supreme Leader he sees the beauty in her and unlocks it by breaking into a song with “We Are Here to Change the World.”

Captain EO made its debut in 1986 and was screened at both U.S. theme parks up until 1998. The film was an attraction at Disneyland and Walt Disney World with theme park guests wearing 3D glasses to watch the film and being immersed in the adventure with lasers and smoke around the theater.

The film returned to Disney parks in 2010, a year after Jackson’s death and was shown at Epcot for the final time in December 2015.

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