Well that didn’t take long.
On the first day that Disney‘s 1928 short Steamboat Willie entered the public domain, a trailer has dropped for a horror comedy film featuring none other than Mickey Mouse as the killer.
The synopsis for the film, called Mickey’s Mouse Trap, reads: “It’s Alex’s 21st birthday, but she’s stuck at the amusement arcade on a late shift so her friends decide to surprise her, but a masked killer dressed as Mickey Mouse decides to play a game of his own with them which she must survive.”
The trailer features, yep, a person in a Mickey Mouse costume, wearing what resembles a hockey jersey without the letters, attacking a victim and stalking others inside a Chuck E. Cheese-like place (reminiscent of last year’s horror hit Five Nights at Freddy’s). There also is Scream-like self-awareness about the horror genre, including one character predicting that another is going to get killed since he says, “I’ll be right back.”
“Well, he’s dead. … If he was in a horror movie, you’d never say, I’ll be right back, because then you … don’t,” he explains.
The trailer also features the words: “A place for fun, a place for friends, a place for hunting. The mouse is out.”
The movie was directed by Jamie Bailey, who said in a statement: “We just wanted to have fun with it all. I mean it’s Steamboat Willie‘s Mickey Mouse murdering people. It’s ridiculous. We ran with it and had fun doing it and I think it shows.”
The film stars Sophie McIntosh, Callum Sywyk, Allegra Nocita, Ben Harris, Damir Kovic, Mackenzie Mills, Nick Biskupek and Simon Phillips and was produced by Paul Whitney, Mark Popejoy, Alexander Gausman and Andrew Agopsowicz, with Filmcore’s Mem Ferda co-producing.
The film does not yet have a release date, but producers are aiming for March. It’s unclear if there is a distributor on board or what platform the producers are aiming for. The Hollywood Reporter has reached out for additional details.
Mickey’s Mouse Trap follows last year’s horror film Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, which was made possible after A.A. Milne’s original Winnie the Pooh entered the public domain two years ago. Pooh’s friend Tigger also enters the public domain this year.
Watch the trailer for Mickey’s Mouse Trap below.
