For the two of you out there worrying about former Disneyland Resort president Cynthia Harriss after "resigning" from that post... she has unsurprisingly been handed a job at Gap Inc by her former Disney boss, Paul Pressler. The scary part of all this isn't that half of Gap's top management team now consists of former Disney managers, but that these people were at Disney in the first place.
ATTACK OF THE CLONES?
Parksmania - In Italian
If Ben Mills has translated correctly, there is something weird going on in Italy. I know enough Spanish to semi-understand some of it too. Apparently some park called Movie Studios will be building a "new" attraction based on Terminator 2. Check out the art and it doesn't take much imagination to believe this is Universal's T2: 3-D film.
So what's going on? The park already has something called Blues Brothers 2000, but Universal doesn't own it. Maybe Universal has some deal with the park - Universal is mentioned later in the article (understand it, Ben?) - where it builds attractions for parks which don't compete with their own parks. The whole thing is odd, if you ask me.
REMEMBERING AND FORGETTING
Insider information.
Although SeaWorld Orlando seems to be getting all the focus lately, San Diego is finally starting to get some notice by Busch. And not just any Busch, but apparently August Busch III, who made a surprise visit to the park and did not like what he saw. Now we know most of the changes coming up, like the Journey to Atlantis/dolphin pool construction and the possibility of an onsite hotel. But future possibilities include many other Orlando features. Expect a Waterfront-like addition as well as a permanent Dine with Shamu venue modeled after Orlando's version.
SeaWorld San Antonio is not so lucky. Although the town is one of the US's largest, it doesn't get much traffic outside the area. So no San Diego master plan for the park. In fact, it wouldn't be surprising if the park no longer existed a decade down the line. So how far is SWSA from Six Flags Fiesta Texas anyhow? Monorail distance?
I sent the link to the article for the Terminator 2 attraction through Google's Language Translator. The result was sloppy, but it may have shed a little light on the situation.
The attraction probably won't be a clone from Universal but rather a spin-off--something that may focus more on Judgement Day. And yet, the artist concept for the building clearly features the Cyberdyne logo on top of the attraction.
And the Universal Studios Hollywood mentioned afterwards is part of a guest review for Movie Studios Park--and I THINK they may be commenting on how many more Hollywood characters were around at Movie Studios Park compared to the lack of characters at USH, but despite the fact it would back up my arguement on Universal's lack of look-alike Hollywood stars, I can't be 100% sure that this is, in fact, what the guest is talking about.
www.moviestudios.it: here's the official Movie Studios Park website. The entire park looks very much inspired by Universal. How 'bout that Rambo Action Show, eh?
Anyway...
I'll begin with a brief history of Movie Studios, for those not in the know. It opened last year in the middle of a large park/reserve/property called CanevaPark, or something like that. I forget. It's about a fifteen minute drive from Gardaland, that other great park in Italy, and at the moment is quite small, about the same size as Walt Disney Studios Paris, as you can see from the artwork.
Next, the whole Universal connection. Universal Creative have been known, from time to time, to design rides for foreign theme parks, like Kevin guessed. The Spiderman stunt show at Thorpe Park, for instance, was designed by them. They also did another project somewhere in Germany. I'm not sure what the return conditions are, but they've been involved with the Tussauds company a lot, thus prompting the take-over rumors. And they were designers for loads of Halloween events across the continent. An edited version of All Night DrIvE In at IoA was also used at Thorpe Park for example, and the Jungle of Fear walkthrough from IoA was used in a small park in the Low Countries.
Onto the Terminator attraction...
One of the reasons that I saw the connection was because not only is this a film attraction with actors, but it is also based around the events of Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Which, if I remember correctly, is what the T2:3D attraction was based upon. And looking at the artwork, the building looks the right size, wouldn't you say?
Having re-read the article, I can see now that, as Joe pointed out, the large paragraphs at the end are trip reports. The references to Universal are when people have stated that they feel that Movie Studios is their very own Universal Studios. Which, in five years time, it could be, following the mass-enhancement plan they intend to put in place over the coming years, in a bid to tackle Gardaland head-on.
Not that building SWO's additions have been bad ideas, especially the very expensive Discovery Cove (the main reason SWSD was ignored). Anything but. But at what cost? As Disney is currently proving, you can't treat your loyal customers poorly and expect them to stick around. Hopefully this new focus will bring SWSD back to the status it deserves.
