While Geoffrey Rush's appearance in the House On Haunted Hill remake comes across as an homage to Vincent Price, that was something of a happy accident. William Castle is a horror icon who directed several classic b-movies, in addition to producing 1968's Rosemary's Baby. Castle was known for his showmanship and using gimmicks during screenings of his films, such as The Tingler featuring seats that were rigged to vibrate when the titular monster "escaped" into movie theaters screening it, with the jolts administered giving the impression it was moving through the audience.
One of William Castle's most popular films is 1959's House On Haunted Hill, starring Vincent Price (Edward Scissorhands). The story has Price's millionaire invite a group of people to spend the night in a haunted house in exchange for a cash prize. This film's big gimmick was dubbed "Emergo," which saw a fake skeleton fly over audiences during the finale.
In 1999 filmmakers such as Robert Zemeckis (Back To The Future) and Joel Silver formed Dark Castle Entertainment, a production company that aimed to remake William Castle's work. House On Haunted Hill from 1999 was their first production, which updated the concept but still managed to be an eerie joyride of its own. The film is fronted by Geoffrey Rush as Stephen Price, whose surname is meant as an obvious tip of the hat to Vincent Price from the original.
Rush's look and mannerisms are also very reminiscent of Vincent Price in House On Haunted Hill, but this wasn't the original intent. The character of Price in the remake is the eccentric builder of rollercoasters, but in the screenplay, he described as a normal-looking businessman. Rush wanted to inject Price was more personality and he wanted to model his look off cult filmmaker John Waters (Hairspray). Regardless, after putting together his House On Haunted Hill look Geoffrey Rush ended up resembling Vincent Price more than John Waters. In an interesting side note, Waters himself is a self-professed huge fan of William Castle and ended up playing the filmmaker in an episode of Feud.
The House On Haunted Hill remake was a solid hit during release but it's evolved into something of a cult favorite now, with the movie managing to be a lot of fun and genuinely creepy at the same time. It later received a 2007 STV sequel called Return To House On Haunted Hill, which was poorly reviewed but came with a cool interactive feature that let viewers pick their own path at certain sections, like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. There was also talk of a new remake of House On Haunted Hill back in 2017 at Warner Bros, but nothing about this potential project has been heard since.