Disneyland Movie Update From David Gordon Green: It’s “On Hold”

Filmmaker David Gordon Green’s Disneyland biopic centering on Walt Disney and his brother Roy O. Disney is currently being held up… for now.

The Exorcist: Believer director told io9 exclusively, “It’s on pause right now. There’s some rights issues.” The film from Green, who excels in finding the honesty in any genre from horror to comedy, would surely offer an interesting and complex view on the Disney family. “That was going to be a lot of fun. It’s a really interesting story about the brothers.”

The film was set to chronicle the journey taken by Disney in dreaming up his kingdom; Roy advised him after their success in the movies, but—always a man of tomorrow—Walt roped his brother into another giant gamble with Disneyland. They would often butt heads, but ultimately changed the world of entertainment.

Walt may be the name everyone remembers, but Roy also played a pivotal role in making Disney the empire it is today. According to an anecdote shared on Roy’s profile on the Walt Disney Family Museum historical archive, “He paid ABC 15 times its $500,000 investment in Disneyland to buy out its 34% interest. This gave Walt Disney Productions control of the park and the freedom to take elsewhere their television series that ABC cancelled, the Mickey Mouse Club and Zorro. This figure, $7.5 million, led even Walt Disney to ask Roy before the negotiation, ‘Do you think it’s necessary?’”

Hopefully, there will be good updates on this project soon; our dream casting is Dan Stevens as Walt and Ryan Gosling as Roy. Hey, as time goes on they can age into the roles, though hopefully we won’t have to wait too long before the Disneyland movie project is no longer “on pause.”

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