Tower of Terror: Scarlett Johansson to produce and star in ride-based movie

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

As Disney prepares to give the Scarlett Johansson-led Marvel movie Black Widow a theatrical release in just two weeks, only July 9th, the studio has also started working with Johansson on a new movie based on their theme park ride Tower of Terror. Johansson will be producing and starring in the film.

Josh Cooley, director of Toy Story 4 and writer of Inside Out, is writing Tower of Terror, but plot details have not been revealed. The drop tower dark ride was initially inspired by The Twilight Zone and gives the visitors of Disney parks the chance to ride on an elevator that was the site of a mysterious disappearance back in the 1930s. Here's a description of the set-up from the ride's Wikipedia page: 

"Hollywood, 1939. Amid the glitz and the glitter of a bustling movie town at the height of its golden age, the Hollywood Tower Hotel was a star in its own right, a beacon for the show business elite. Now, something is about to happen that will change all that."

As the preshow video (directed by Joe Dante) plays, a lightning bolt strikes the tower and causes five people — a celebrity couple, a rising child star, her nanny, and a hotel bellhop — to vanish from the elevator, along with an entire wing of the building. 

During the ride on the elevator, passengers get a peek into the Fifth Dimension. There are versions of the Tower of Terror at Disney's Hollywood Studios, Tokyo DisneySea, and Walt Disney Studios Park. There used to be one at Disney California Adventure, but it was replaced by a Guardians of the Galaxy ride. The Tokyo version removed the Twilight Zone connection.

Also free of any connection to The Twilight Zone was the 1997 TV movie based on the Tower of Terror, a movie which starred Steve Guttenberg and Kirsten Dunst.

Johansson will be producing the new Tower of Terror movie through her company These Pictures, alongside Jonathan Lia. A director has not yet been hired.

I've never been on a Tower of Terror myself, but could be interested in watching a movie about Scarlett Johansson taking a creepy elevator ride.