What's Good For Movies Works On TV: Disney's 'Big Thunder Mountain Railroad' Inspires Series

Briefly: If one were to imagine Disney's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride inspiring a narrative arc, it might be a children's' western, or something along the lines of Thomas the Tank Engine. But while Disney is putting a show into development based on the ride, the concept is focused around another aspect of the ride, and one which is behind so many other new shows. The ride has inspired a "supernatural adventure drama" at ABC, with a script by Chris Morgan (Fast and Furious) and Jason Fuchs (Ice Age: Continental Drift).

No doubt the general tone will be one able to entice families and kids, and this will be one way to explain where those dinosaur bones came from. Given that the various backstories for the ride involve the gold rush, perhaps there could also be a Yeti. Or is that movie vaguely based on the Matterhorn ride already claiming dibs on that big guy? The supernatural aspect will likely come into play thanks to the other consistent notion in the backstory — that greedy miners built their mining town on sacred Native American land, then fell prey to a natural disaster (like an earthquake, or a flood), leaving the possessed trains to run on their own. [Variety]