Saturday, July 7, 2018

DLP Walt Disney Studios Expansion Latest Master Plan Unveiled


What is supposed to be the latest approved master plan for DLP Walt Disney Studios expansion has been leaked and posted on Disney Central Plaza forum by someone named Andrew Ryan. Apparently it's not a fake and it's the real thing so we'll have a closer look at it. The one posted on DCP by Andrew Ryan is the one above but note that it is not the original DLPI master plan but one identical that Andrew Ryan did after seeing the original master plan. An article posted yesterday added some colors to see a bit more clearly what is what, it's the version below, to which i've added some text.

In Purple color it's he Marvel land buildings ( attractions, shops or restaurants ) 
In Yellow color the ones of Frozen land ( attractions, shops or restaurants ) 
In Blue color it's the ones of Star Wars land ( attractions, shops or restaurants ) 
and in Green color it's the Studio Tram Tour as, against all expectations, it seems they will keep the Tram Tour, at least for a while.
In Red color it's others unknown attractions, out of the main three new lands, and in Orange color it's restaurants located near the central lake.


Let's start by the Marvel land as, big surprise, the Armageddon attraction building which was expected to be the first one to be removed for a new attraction is still there. May be the attraction itself will be removed from the building but the building is still on the master plan and, as it's not a big show building, it could mean that they don't plan to put instead a new ride here, at least in the first phase of the expansion. A Marvel super-heroes meet and greet was rumored to open there so may be that's what will come inside the show building.

Always in the Marvel land the Stunt show structure  is still on the plan, but that one it's normal as they never planned to remove it now, only to change the stunt show theme to be replaced by a Marvel theme in a near future, may be when the land will be completed in 2021. The restaurants of the former Backlot will be rethemed, but this we knew it already. Apparently the completion of the Marvel land is scheduled for 2020 / 2021.

On our way to the Central Lake we note that no show building for the Alien Swirling Saucers ride ( like the one which just opened at WDW DHS Toy Story Land ) is included on the plan even if we could see it clearly on the official rendering released early this year, the artwork that you can see below. So may be the Alien Swirling Saucers ride is cancelled...

Now, more about the lake: on the rendering below the lake seems to have a quite oval shape - though the perspective view of the artwork may be tricky - and now, as you can see on the plan, its shape looks more like a circle. If the lake size has changed there is some reasons for that which would be too long to explain here, let's just say that it's probably not for budget reasons or the park blueprint itself. Around the lake the buildings color orange will be restaurants. We can also see that paths will be created around the lake, most probably for guests who will stand around the lake to watch the show. I wouldn't be surprised if the paths will be built at different levels like they did at DCA Paradise Park for those watching World of Color, as it help to have different rows at different levels to don't have guests in the front row blocking the view for those behind.

Talking about the lake, someone has checked and apparently it seems that the lake will be as big as the central one of Tokyo DisneySea's Mediterranean Harbor in front of the Hotel Mira Costa, where is happening daily the water parade. The lake of DisneySea looks bigger to me, though, so we'll see. You'll also notice on the plan a water area outside the lake, on the right of the Frozen land. As it looks like a similar one at TDS - from where TDS floating floats are coming from - some wonder if the same kind of floating parade is envisioned for DLP WDS, with the floating floats hiding in this area until it's parade time. Could be the case indeed, but they've also planned a spectacular nighttime fountain show on the lake, meaning that all the fountain equipment will be located underwater and i'm not sure that the floats can move over it... we'll see, may they can if the fountain equipment can retract deeply enough inside the lake once the nighttime show is over.

On the left and right before arriving to the lake the red buildings are supposed to be attractions. The big one on the left remains for now a mystery but the little round one on the right could be a carousel...

Let's move to Star Wars land on the left of the lake where the biggest show building is the one for the E-Ticket attraction and its shape looks exactly like the show building of the "Battle Escape" ride currently being built at DL and WDW DHS. So there is no doubt that this ride will come too at WDS SWL ...though i've been told that the ride could have some differences. No show building for the Millenium Falcon ride can be seen on the plan, meaning that the attraction won't be there in the phase one, may be in the future when the budget for it will be approved or if the ride capacity per hour is not a problem when it will open in the U.S. That said, the Star Wars land as it looks right now on the plan is obviously a smaller one, we'll see if it'll be the case when the land will open when it is scheduled in 2024, year of the Olympic Games in Paris.

Nearby, WDS guests will find the Frozen land with one e-Ticket ride in the big show building that you can see on the master plan, but so far no sleighs roller coaster like the one being added to HKDL Frozen land is indicated, meaning that here, too, the land may have only one e-Ticket ride when it will open in 2022 or 2023. 

As i've said they apparently intend to keep the Tram Tour, with a shorter track though, may be because Catastrophe Canyon is so popular, and it helps to keep an attraction. Fans have noticed something interesting on the left of what is supposed to be the Tram Tour station, where you can see small orange spots. It looks like the Cozy Cone Motel at Cars land and if you look at a satellite view of it, the orange spots looks very much like the Cozy Cone Motel . On the picture below i've placed on the same angle a satellite view of the Cozy Cone Motel at DCA Cars Land so you'll see what i mean.


As you can see on the master plan there is clearly room for future expansion on the right of the lake, and because the supposed Cozy Cone Motel is so intriguing - why would they put it here when there is no Cars Land nearby? - some wonder if it means that DLP plan to build a Cars Land in the future. So, Andrew Ryan did another plan, this one not from an official DLP plan, in which he shows how could be include a Cars Land on the right. Not sure that the scale is 100% right, though, but even if it was 50% bigger, it could fit.

Personally, i'm still not sure that a Cars Land will be added to the WDS. Not that i think it won't be a good idea but because of the cost of it, DLP weather for the outdoor portion of the ride and the maintenance of Cars Land mountains. When we see that they need to repaint DLP Big Thunder Mountain so often, i have some doubts about how long will stay the ochre color of Cars Land mountains and how often they would need to repaint them...



The other long time rumored land for the WDS is the hugely popular Pandora land. I'll be happy to have Pandora at the WDS and here the issue might not be the painting but Pandora's extraterrestrial vegetation as DLP weather is not really tropical like in Florida. But Disney apparently is waiting to see if the Avatar sequels will be a success before bringing Pandora in others Disney parks, so we'll have to wait for this one. It didn't stopped Andrew Ryan to do another map showing how a Pandora land could also fit on the right of the lake, and this, even with a Cars Land under it. If the scale is right, apparently there is room enough to build both lands.


That said, when we look at the expansion plan as it is right now, clearly the 2 Billion budget announced for DLP and WDS expansion won't be spent entirely in the WDS expansion ...which is in fact rather a good news as it means that they've kept a big part of the $2B budget for others additions ay DLP Magic Kingdom, a park which also desperately need new attractions. An announcement about this should come probably next year, so we'll talk again about it at that time.

Plans done by Andrew Ryan

Artwork: copyright Disney

Thursday, July 5, 2018

Incredible Unseen Footage and The Shining Interviews with Stanley Kubrick & Vivian Kubrick



Do we have fans of Stanley Kubrick movies here, and especially 2001 : A Space Odyssey and The Shining? If yes, some incredible footage coming out of nowhere has surfaced on Youtube and it's a treasure for Kubrick fans as it was filmed in 1980 at Elstree Studios where The Shining was filmed, in England, as well as interviews of Stanley Kubrick and his daughter Vivian Kubrick who did the excellent making-of documentary of The Shining.

But there is more as in his interview - audio only because Kubrick was recorded on the phone as he was not available to come to Elstree Studios - Stanley answers to two questions that he voluntarily never, EVER answered, and which are the ones that fans desperately wanted an answer from him! 

The first one is about the meaning of the end of 2001 : A Space Odyssey, and especially this scene below.


And the other is about the last shot of The Shining in which we discover Jack Nicholson character on a picture displayed in the Overlook hotel, showing a party which happened 60 years before on July 4, 1921, this picture.


Now, a bit more about where this amazing footage - obviously a non-edited raw footage - is coming from thanks to the Youtube description of the video:

"Towards the end of post-production on The Shining Jun'ichi Yaoi visited Stanley Kubrick's offices at EMI Elstree Studios to investigate reports of paranormal activity on the set there were several accidents and a major fire during production which were prominently reported by the media at the time.

This raw footage was likely shot for an unreleased/unaired Japanese paranormal TV documentary - Jun'ichi Yaoi ( 矢追 純一 ) b.1935 is a director/producer, TV personality and writer well known in Japan for his explorations of the paranormal, he worked for Nippon Television Network in the '60s, '70s and '80s producing many shows for them on the topic. He is widely credited with popularising UFOs in Japan.

The unedited footage came from original production master VHS tapes in the personal collection of famed ufologist Wendelle C. Stevens, who was apparently involved in this production. (The footage was originally shot to Sony KCS20 U-matic Cartridges and then mastered to VHS)


The video opens with the journey from London to EMI Elstree Studios, including arrival at studio reception. Junichi Yaoi is given a tour of EMI Elstree Studios by Julian Senior (Vice President of Advertising & Publicity for Warner Brothers/ Europe), they discuss production on the Shining, Kubrick's innovative TV teaser spots. This is followed by a meeting with Vivian Kubrick who discusses her documentary, anecdotes of production on The Shining and her father, further tours of the post-production offices.

A tour is given by Vivian of "the Kubrick equipment room" including discussing and handling Stanley Kubricks Zeiss Planar f/0.7 converted NASA lens from Barry Lyndon, Shelley Duvall's costumes, props and equipment from previous films. This seems to be Kubrick's working archive, after this we also see Stanley Kubrick's personal office.

Jun'ichi Yaoi conducts a telephone interview with Stanley Kubrick - Kubrick is allegedly away from the office overseeing foreign language prints of the film (it has been said by those present that day that he did not want to appear on camera and was actually in another office at Elstree). This is followed by an in-depth interview with Vivian Kubrick.

We get final glimpses of exteriors at EMI Elstree, then the journey back to central London and final views of the ABC Cinema Shaftesbury Avenue (now the Odeon Covent Garden) with a Shining marquee."

It's important to remember that Junichi Yaoi was the producer of a Japanese paranormal show at that time, which explain the question he asked to Kubrick, including some odd ones like "Do you believe in UFO?".  But this 1h24min video is such gold for Kubrick fans that it doesn't matter. Watch it, you'll learn a lot and Vivian Kubrick is smart and absolutely lovely!




Here are the different "chapters" for those of you who would like to choose a sequence directly. Also note that the video starts and ends with a five minutes footage in the street of London to Elstree Studios, and back. You can jump this if you wish.

00:00 Intro / Drive from central London to EMI Elstree Studios (Borehamwood)
04:14 Arrival at EMI Elstree Studios
07:07 Meeting with Julian Senior (Warner Brothers)
12:16 Tour of studio sound stages with Julian Senior, details of production
18:30 Back to the production offices - details of scenes shot there
23:00 Meeting with Vivian Kubrick, discussing her Shining documentary
27:20 Vivian Kubrick shows Jun'ichi Yaoi "the Kubrick equipment room"
31:50 Stanley Kubrick's equipment the 'famous' Zeiss f/0.7 NASA lens.
34:00 Stanley Kubrick working archive
36:15 '2001: A Space Odyssey' related material (back projection slides) 
38:04 Stanley Kubrick's office
41:40 Vivian Kubrick interview at edit table
45:24 Telephone interview with Stanley Kubrick
55:45 Interview with Vivian Kubrick
1:15:26 EMI Elstree studios exteriors 
1:16:35 Outtro / drive back to London, central London and Soho
1:22:57 ABC Cinema Shaftesbury Avenue (The Shining posters & marquee)

New Teaser Video for Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge



After last week's expansion of the model, a brand new five minute teaser video for Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge is now showing at Walt Disney Presents at Disney's Hollywood Studios. WDWNT has filmed a video of it, here it is.




Video: copyright WDWNT, Disney

Marvel Release Stunning Concept-Arts From Avengers: Infinity War


Marvel released officially a set of stunning never-seen-before concept arts from Avengers: Infinity War has been officially released which puts the spotlight on Thor vs. The Black Order, the movie's ending, and other key moments of the movie, and others which have been cut like Thor battling The Black Order, while the Mad Titan squares off with The Collector, and more

Definitely click on each of them to see them in big size!
















































Pictures: copyright Marvel

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Universal Studios Singapore "Jurassic World ROAR!” Show



Universal Studios Singapore has a new small show called "Jurassic World ROAR!” for the release of the new Jurassic World movie. It is apparently located at the end of the Hollywood Blvd on the plaza near the lake and at the left of Mel’s Drive-In restaurant, and not in the Jurassic Park land. Watch the video below!




Video: copyright Wilson Ng

Monday, July 2, 2018

Amazing Summer Special Offer For the Disneyland Paris "From Sketch to Reality" Book at the Best Price Ever!


It's time for a Summer Special Offer on the LAST English copies of the acclaimed Disneyland Paris book "From Sketch to Reality". It's your last chance to get a printed copy of this gorgeous book at a reasonable price, no kidding!

Note: The French edition is totally out of stock but if you're French, and wish to purchase the book in its English edition i will send you a PDF file of the full French text of the French edition. The other option for French readers is to pre-order the eBook edition, see HERE. Note that the eBook edition exist in French language only.

Here is all you need to know to order a copy of the "Disneyland Paris From Sketch to Reality" book with the special offer. First, it's a 320 pages book with 750 pictures of the park including 250 WDI artworks! It's also probably the best gift you can find for a Disney Parks fan - and it is true! Have a look below to the mosaic pictures showing a selection of pages of the book.

To place your order for the DLP book, please send me an email at: amplittaye@gmail.com with your shipping address. The price during the special offer is 60€ ( instead of 85€ ) and shipping worldwide is 22€ ( except Belgium and Italy for which it is 29€ ).

For French readers a PDF file of the full French text of the French edition will be sent.
Lecteurs Français: Etant donné que l'édition française est épuisée, un fichier du texte complet original en Français sera envoyé aux acheteurs Français ne comprenant pas l'anglais. Ou commandez la version eBook en Français ICI.

Also, each order will receive GREAT surprise gifts!

You can pay with Paypal, credit card or bank transfer. For Paypal payments please send directly the full amount  including shipping, i.e 82€ worldwide, except for Belgium and Italy for which it is 89€ at: nme4@wanadoo.fr  If you wish to pay by credit card and bank transfer, send me an email at: amplittaye@gmail.com   and i'll tell you how to do.









If you've never seen the book before, don't miss the video below showing the full 320 pages of the book!



Celebrate! Tokyo Disneyland Nighttime Show Will Premiere on July 10 at Tokyo Disneyland!


In just one week, on July 10 the highly awaited Celebrate! Tokyo Disneyland projection show will premiere at Tokyo Disneyland. In this new promo video Imagineer Steve Davison explain why it will be amazing and a whole new kind of nighttime show.




Picture and video: copyright Disney

Video: World of Disney store Reopens at WDW Disney Springs!


The huge World of Disney store at WDW Disney Springs reopened today with a brand new style of design and D&M has a video for you filmed just a few hours ago! Note that apparently the "re-imagining of the store is still going on and will be over this fall. Enjoy the tour!







And here is the video posted by WEDWAY, whom i thanks a lot.



Video: copyright WEDWAY