I have a new style icon.

And potentially, a really easy Halloween costume for next year. The top half of the image, not the bottom. (I'm weird, but I'm not that weird.) She's brave with those bangs...and wouldn't it be nice to rock a nightgown all the time?

Changing Portrait of the Cat Lady - The Haunted Mansion
Walt Disney World

Then again, I could always be all gender progressive and stuff and go with Seymour Skinner's "Catman"... 

Yes, it's December and I'm talking about Halloween costumes. When you're inspired, you go with it. 

Guillermo Del Toro's "Haunted Mansion" Movie Finally Happening?

When Ain't It Cool posted this little tid-bit today, I got pretty worked up. What are the odds that this project is Del Toro's long rumored, and at one time definitely confirmed, Disney Haunted Mansion film?

With Favreau doing his "Magic Kingdom" movie, it seems like Disney is placing bets on high quality directors with ultra-specific visions. Here's hoping Del Toro is still on board. At the very least, we know he loves the haunted house genre enough to re-visit the theme often.

Portions of the "Hellboy" movies play out like little haunted vignettes. (I'm thinking of those pesky little tooth fairies, the labyrinth at the end of the first movie, etc.) Then there was, "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark", which was another classic example of the story structure. 

Haunted house stories, if you didn't know, sprang from the period of gothic literature. When the idea of outdoor adventure was considered taboo or for the lower classes and certainly not acceptable for women, an entire genre was concocted that brought the adventure indoors. 

I wrote a really long obnoxious academic paper about it HERE on Yahoo.

George "Broyhill"

You know you're a geek when every time you pass a furniture store called "Broyhill" you start thinking of all things "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". (Which remains in my permanent top ten, by the way.)

If you're a film nerd, you get that.

If you're not...what are you doing here?