Islands
of Adventure: Harry
Potter
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June
1, 2007
Updates are starting to come in. This new land will take
up 20 acres and borrow some land from the Lost Continent.
May
31, 2007
It's Official! The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is
coming to Islands of Adventure in 2009. Billed as "A
Theme Park within a Theme Park". Expected to open
in late 2009 (possibly early 2010), the new environment
will feature immersive rides and interactive attractions,
as well as experiential shops and restaurants that will
engulf guests to sample fare from the wizarding world's
best known establishments. Also debuting will be a state-of-the-art
attraction that will bring the magic, characters and stories
of Harry Potter to life like never before.
The area will use a portion of the Lost Continent and
an undeveloped area the is currently not in use. Look
for the Forbidden Forest, Hogsmeade, and the Hogwarts
Castle.
April
16, 2007
More on the Harry Potter rumor. This from the Jim Hill
Media website:
By now, you've probably heard that Nikki Finke has confirmed
what I wrote back back on February 5th (Though -- to be
fair here -- I guess I should acknowledge that it was
actually Arthur Levine of About.com & Lance Hart of
Screamscape who first reported this story). That Universal
Studios has in fact scored the theme park rights to J.K.
Rowling's characters. More importantly, that Universal
will shortly be announcing its plans to add a whole "Harry
Potter" -themed land to the line-up of attractions
that the company currently has at its "Islands of
Adventure" theme park.
Mind you, Universal can't be all that happy about Ms.
Finke (Or me, Mr. Levine & Mr. Hart, for that matter)
letting Crookshanks out of the bag. Given the elaborate
security precautions that the company had put in place
in order to keep "Project Strongarm" under wraps.
With a 24-hour guard being placed on the Universal Studios
Hollywood soundstage where that mock-up of the flying
Ford Anglia had been built. Where only key members of
the creative team and/or senior General Electric / NBC
/ Universal officials were actually allowed in to view
and then ride the prototype.
Now you'd think -- given the enormous amount of time,
money & effort that the Walt Disney Company had wasted
over the past few years in trying to woo Ms. Rowling,
so that the Mouse could then score the exclusive theme
park rights to "Harry Potter" -- that the Imagineers
would be rather upset to see Universal Studios wind up
with those rights instead. But that's honestly not the
story that I've been hearing coming out of Glendale.
If anything, the guys at WDI are breathing a sigh of
relief that it's Universal -- rather than Disney -- that
will now have to deal with J.K. on a daily basis. Based
on the tales that I've been told about Mickey's protracted
negotiations with Ms. Rowling ... Well, let's just say
that the author of the "Harry Potter" series
is said to be somewhat difficult to deal with.
Wait a minute. It's probably not all that fair of me
to characterize J.K. in this fashion. So how's about instead
that I say that Ms. Rowling was reported to be very protective
of her characters. More to the point, that she supposedly
had some very definite ideas about what a theme park version
of Harry Potter's world should look like.
How so? Well, according to the folks that I've spoken
with who worked on the Disney version of this project
... J.K. allegedly wanted each & every guest who was
experiencing the theme park version of Harry Potter's
world to do so by first entering the Leaky Cauldron pub.
Where -- by tapping on just the right brick ("Three
up and two across ... ") -- they'd then gain access
to Diagon Alley, that odd collection of Wizards-only shops
& restaurants that's hidden away in the heart of London
From this area (Which was -- at least in the stand-alone
version of the proposed "Harry Potter" theme
park -- supposed to have been the equivalent of Main Street
U.S.A. at Disneyland. As in: That area that established
the style & the tone of the theme park to follow.
More importantly, Diagon Alley would have been where most
of the guests purchased their souvenirs before exiting
the park that night), these folks were then supposed to
have made their way to Platform 9 & 3/4 at King's
Cross Station. Where -- after magically piercing the barrier
that separates the Muggle world from the Wizard world
-- guests would have then been able to board a full-sized
version of the Hogwarts Express for a trip to Harry's
alma mater.
Which admittedly (on paper, anyway) sounds wonderful.
But to the folks who actually run the Parks & Resorts
side of things at the Walt Disney Company, what Rowling
was reportedly asking for sounded unfeasible. Never mind
the costs involved in building such an elaborate recreation
of Harry Potter's world, just the guest-flow issues (EX:
In order to give each & every guest the experience
of entering Diagon Alley through the Leaky Cauldron ...
Well, that meant that the Mouse would have had to have
built multiple versions of this seedy pub and then staffed
each of these) were enough to give these Ops experts agita.
Even though this "Harry Potter" project was
once viewed as Disney's possible answer to Anheuser-Busch's
Discovery Cove (Where every day, 1000 guests each pay
nearly $300 for the opportunity to swim with dolphins
at this ultra-exclusive theme park) ... In the end, given
everything that Ms. Rowling was allegedly insisting upon,
Mouse House executives thought that it would take a decade
or more to finally get a return on their initial investment.
And given that no one within the company could actually
guarantee that the public's interest in "Harry"
wouldn't wane after the seventh book was published and
the last "Potter" motion picture had been released
... Well, it was then thought that it might be best if
the Mouse took a pass on this particular project.
Plus (to be blunt here) given that -- just about this
same time -- the Walt Disney Company was wrapping up its
deal to acquire Pixar Animation Studios ... Well, it was
felt that the characters that John Lasseter & Co.
had already created (Not to mention all of the animated
features that this talented group of film-makers would
be making for the Mouse in the future) would more than
off-set the loss of the theme park rights to "Harry
Potter."
As one Imagineering insider told me last week:
"Given how difficult Rowling had been to deal with,
losing "Harry Potter" wasn't really that much
of a loss. But Universal scoring an exclusive on Kuka's
robotic arm technology ... That was a real heartbreaker."
You see, to date, that's been the under-reported part
of this story. That it wasn't just that Universal Studios
had scored the theme park rights to the "Harry Potter"
characters. But that Kuka had also awarded Universal a
10-year exclusive on using its amazing technology in a
theme park setting.
It was this news (and not that the Walt Disney Company
& J.K. Rowling had failed to come to terms) that really
upset the guys in Glendale. Mind you, before Kuka &
Universal were able to hammer out their new deal, WDI
did manage to score seven of these robotic arms. One of
which is now being used in the angler fish sequence of
Epcot's new "The Seas with Nemo & Friends"
introductory ride. While the other six will then be used
to create a similar sequence in Disneyland's soon-to-be-opening
"Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage." With three
of these robotic arms being used to move angler fish around
on each side of the sub.
For more visit: Jim Hill Media
April
14, 2007
I’m told that Universal Studios Florida is finalizing
terms to bring a type of “Harry Potter World”
to its Orlando resort. The themed area would be at a previously
unused portion of the amusement park. The negotiations
have been kept uber-secret. This is in addition to the
The Simpsons ride deal I announced earlier this week.
(Previously, various online blogs and websites that follow
theme parks have posted only unconfirmed rumors about
both.) Having Harry will be like a cash cow for Uni. After
all, the six Potter books published to date have collectively
sold more than 325 million copies and been translated
into more than 63 languages. The seventh and last book
in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is
scheduled to be released on July 21st. Its publishers
have announced a record-breaking 12 million copies for
the first print run in the U.S. alone. The first four
books have been made into wildly successful motion pictures
by Warner Bros, which has earned an estimated $4 billion
in total worldwide revenue from them. The fifth pic, Harry
Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, is scheduled for
release on July 13. The books and movies have also spawned
video games and assorted merchandise but never a theme
park attraction. Back in 2005, a news story made the rounds
that Walt Disney Co. wanted to create a Harry Potter theme
park and execs were reportedly looking at a Singapore
site for a huge complex with rides devoted to the Harry
Potter stories. Disney watcher Jim Hill said that the
company had been in protracted negotiations with J.K Rowling
and Warner's to secure theme park rights for the complex.
But that project never materialized. Instead, I'm told
Universal went into negotiations with Warner's and that
a Harry Potter them park deal is now set in principle
but terms are still being finalized. Bill Davis, president
of Universal Orlando Resort, was asked in February by
the Orlando Sentinel about the possibility of a Harry
Potter attraction. Davis replied: "Boy, I think that
would be great. I can't talk about what we're going to
be bringing to either one of our parks in the future.
That's a forward-looking thing we can't discuss. I will
tell you we're working hard to bring innovative, new technologically-advanced
attractions to both of our parks.”
Universal has cashed in on other movie-related attractions
by spinning Jurassic Park, The Mummy, Van Helsing, King
Kong, Spider-Man, Hulk, Back To The Future, Jaws etc.
into theme-park gold. Disney has woven its Pixar toons
into its theme parks and went the reverse route with Pirates
of the Caribbean, a Disneyland water ride that received
a facelift in time for the second installment of the movie.
Wall Street has been only so-so about theme parks because
they have fixed costs and swing up and down with the economic
cycle. When it first took over Universal, GE/NBC reportedly
planned to sell the theme parks. But the company apparently
discovered that they also generate great cash flow. Until
now, the closest anyone has come to making Harry Potter
into an attraction is Alnwick Castle, the location for
Hogwarts School. And the gardens at London’s Buckingham
Palace in 2006 were turned into a $10 million children’s
theme park celebrating British children’s literature
for the Queen's 80th birthday. J.K. Rowling read from
her next Harry Potter book joined by Harry himself, actor
Daniel Radcliffe.
February
1, 2007
Screamscape
is reporting that the rumor is real! A source close to
Screamscape confirms that Universal will replace the Lost
Continent with Harry Potter. It appears that Universal
has been trying to obtain the rights since the first film,
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone debuted back in
2001.
I'll admit I'm buying into the rumor being true since
today also happens to be the day J.K. Rowling announced
on her website that the 7th and final book, Harry Potter
and the Deathly Hollows will be released on July 21, 2007.
Could an announcement be in the works from Universal?
We'll have to wait and see.
January
31, 2007
Here the latest news coming from Screamscape.com:
The Harry Potter project at IOA has been working under
the codename of "Project StrongArm". Although
screamscape can not confirm the Harry Potter story, the
have been told by a source that StrongArm does involve
the rethemwing of an existing attraction and the addition
of an all new attraction.
They also published a report that the timeline for an
opening could be mid to late 2008.
January
30, 2007
There's a whopper of a rumor out today that that The
Lost Continent maybe in for a complete magical overhaul.
According to a story which just appeared on Screamscape.com
has the Islands being completely transformed into match
a "hugely popular" children's franchise. We
are talking about the one and only, Harry Potter. Could
this rumor be true? There is absolute nothing comfirmed.
But a rumor this size is worth at least posting.
Screamscape.com claims to have heard a rumor that maintenance
crews have been giving the Island the Royal treatment
for a group of executives who had come to the park.
About.com also posts that something is brewing for one
of the Islands according to a source and that an "official"
announcement from Universal may be imminent. If so, there
could be wizards and witches some time in 2008/2010.
Talk about landing a first round draft pick! The franchise
has been out in publication since 1998 with movies first
appearing in 2001 and no amusement park has yet to claim
an attraction to one of the biggest book and movie franchise
in history.
Could there be a Howards Castle, Diagon Alley, and Whomping
Willow in IOA's future?
