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Favorite Book you'd like to see made into a Theme Park Attraction

What book out there that you love would you like to see made into a theme park land, show or attraction?

From Joseph Catlett
Posted June 20, 2011 at 6:29 AM
I am a big fan of A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES by John Kennedy Toole. I'd love to see the New Orleans of that book and especially a walk around character of Ignatius J Reilly walking around to have my picture taken with.

Realistically, I'd love to see someone out there give THE LORD OF THE RINGS the theme park treatment.

Anyone else out there have comments on mine or ideas of their own for books they'd love to see make it into the theme park universe?


Comments in chronological order. Most recent at the bottom. Scroll down to respond.

From TH Creative
Posted June 20, 2011 at 8:13 AM
Artemis Fowl (Disney holds part owvership)

A Series of Unfortunate Events

The Phantom Tollbooth

From Andy Milio
Posted June 20, 2011 at 8:34 AM
Of course Lord of the Rings needs it!
I've been reading the book "Ender's Game", and not all of it would make a good theme park attraction, the "Game rooms" would be pretty cool for a lser tag type game (you gotta read it to understand me!)

From Terry O'Neal
Posted June 21, 2011 at 12:10 PM
The Foundation

From Flavio de Souza
Posted June 21, 2011 at 12:16 PM
Lord of the Rings, by far!

I also would love to see Moby Dick, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Conquer from Conn Iggulden, about the live of Gengis Kan.

From TH Creative
Posted June 21, 2011 at 1:30 PM
Moby Dick?!

OUTSTANDING!!!!!

SeaWorld are you paying attention?

From Stuart Henny
Posted June 21, 2011 at 1:50 PM
The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett.

From James Trexen
Posted June 21, 2011 at 2:37 PM
An attraction based off the Percy Jackson series would work very well in the Lost Continent section of Islands of Adventure. Replace Sinbad's stunt show or feature some Camp Half-Blood replica ride.

From Nick Markham
Posted June 21, 2011 at 3:49 PM
The problem with Lord of the Rings is that it is a dark story, and very adult. Kids would be horrified to see it, and some adults might even be creeped out, but the way it was done would make a great ride, I just don't think it would be good for a theme park.

From David L.
Posted June 21, 2011 at 4:35 PM
I think Lord of the Rings needs to come somewhere. I could see both disney and universal creating it but i think Universal would be more willing. Nick, Lord of the Rings is dark but is very different from dark movies like the newer Batman movies. I saw the LOTR movies when i was young and still enjoyed them(though many parts did scare me). It really depends on if they base it off of the movies or the books. Universal put terminator in their parks which i would never let any young kids see. I could see Disney putting in Percy Jackson stories for the preteen crowd at DHS or Universal putting it in USF or USH. A sherlock Holmes attraction in Epcot would be nice as well.

From Carrie Hood
Posted June 21, 2011 at 7:29 PM
If they made Lord of the Rings, would the pre-show be someone waxing poetic about the shiny doorknob or the true smell of trolls for 20 minutes? Wouldn't this also make the line six hours long? Damn doorknobs!
Now that my husband has gone of the deep end, I shall inject his quotes. Their funny and mean no offense to anyone other then a good laugh to people who've read the books.
Husband: Then what happens? Easy! A two hour line, a 3 hour ride and a 2 hour post show to explain everything that happened in the middle!

Discworld? I'm not a huge fan of Pratchett but allow me to once again quote my husband.
Husband: What? A ride? You'd need an entire theme park! Do you enter and never leave again for 38 years? How would that work? How would you even find you car?! To make a proper Discworld theme park it would have to be on the back of a giant turtle that's supported by elephants, just wandering around. You'd never see your car again! You wake up one day, in California.. "What the hell am I doing here?" The next day your in Canada... "Daaaaamnit". Mexico? Burritos, cool but I want my car! Pennsylvania "Yay! My car.. oh hell the PPA towed it!". Wait, this is a bad idea.. don't build this!

Husband yet again: Nueromancer: The Ride! You never really go anyplace, you just sit in a chair and we dope you up then we flash pretty lights at you!

Okay, now that' he's done being funny and making me have to laugh at everything we thought of on our own I'll inject a few of my random ideas.
Mmmmmm... Now onto my own ideas.
I'd like to see something like Twisted Tales, for Grimm Borthers or Hans Christian Anderson. The real stories which where dark and taught lessons not the fluffy-Disnified stuff.

What about Narnia? Disney owns the rights, I'd like to see some kind of adventure ride show up in the parks. Hell, you could stick it in Epcot inside Great Britain.

Rachel Caines, Weather Warden series would kind of work for a Twister Re-theme oddly enough.

The rest of the authors and series I like would be nearly impossible without a theme park built for them but my geeky side keeps saying "Mercedes Lackey". However my mind boggles at the idea of how to pull that off! ;)

From Anthony Murphy
Posted June 21, 2011 at 8:33 PM
Percy Jackson seems like a good fit for Disney, especially EPCOT (Greece please!)

From Rob P
Posted June 22, 2011 at 1:35 AM
"Rosemary's Baby " by Ira Levin

"How to be a Happy Hippo" by Jonathan Shipton


From Ty Wijnans
Posted June 22, 2011 at 4:22 AM
Gotta agree with the Lord of the Rings… It was actually the First book I thought of when I was reading this forum. Just imagine a water ride based in which you pass the Argonaths and other famous sites from the books.

I also think the Opera the Ring of the Nibelungen would make a great ride. This opera is filled with mythological beings and places all based upon the Norse and Germanic myths. I can just picture a Valkyrie based rollercoaster.

But - and call me old fashioned – some of the classical Greek books would make great themepark rides. In this respect I’m thinking of the Odyssey by Homer (not Homer Simpson :-P). This book has gotten everything from sea voyages to several monsters.

From Terry O'Neal
Posted June 22, 2011 at 8:18 AM
Dark Tower

From Jeff Elliott
Posted June 22, 2011 at 11:53 AM
Since someone already took Terry Pratchett's Discworld...

- Rich Dad, Poor Dad
- Who Moved My Cheese
- Fundamentals of Accounting, 3rd Edition
- Complete Idiots Guide to Dating
- Atlas Shrugged
- The Dictionary

From Adam Dodds
Posted June 22, 2011 at 1:18 PM
I always that Narnia could be a whole land, maybe par of Beasts Kingdom at DAK. I also love the idea of Artemis Fowl (And I'm not sure why Disney hasn't made a movie since they publish it).

This could be tacky, but maybe Kingdom Keepers turned into something like Kim Possible but for MK.

Also saw someone mention Series of Unfortunate Events. That could be it's own park too, but it would be for such a niche crowd. I don't care as long as it isn't Twilight.

Whatever book you choose, it probably needs to be a series with a developed unique "universe" like Lord of the Rings, but it has to have a mass appeal.

My first priority though is a new thrill ride in Tomorrowland based on Tron.

From Tim W
Posted June 22, 2011 at 1:33 PM
Kingdom Keepers...

From Andy Milio
Posted June 22, 2011 at 2:09 PM
lol Kingdom Keepers would only work as a Kim Possible sort of thing, in my opinion

From Chris Hall
Posted June 23, 2011 at 5:26 AM
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Or is that only a movie? Anyway, I could see myself floating down a river of chocolate!!!

From Andy Milio
Posted June 23, 2011 at 7:34 AM
^It's a book, and they have a Chocolate Factory ride somewhere, I don't remember where though

From Manny Rodriguez
Posted June 23, 2011 at 8:05 AM
Kingdom keepers , eragon, artimis fowl , lord of the rings,

From Chris Hall
Posted June 23, 2011 at 2:01 PM
Oh darn, I was really proud of what I thought was a very original idea! :)

From Carrie Hood
Posted June 23, 2011 at 3:35 PM
@Andy: Hershey park as a little flat ride that goes threw a faux chocolate factory. Could that be what your thinking?

Personally I'd think Charlie and the Chocolate Factory would make a pretty awesome simulator ride. The great debate would be which twisted version of "Willy Wonka" would we want as our host?

From Andy Milio
Posted June 23, 2011 at 4:25 PM
^I think that's it. I'm too lazy to look it up :D

From Chris Hall
Posted June 24, 2011 at 6:19 AM
I say let's leave Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean!

From Curtis Young
Posted June 24, 2011 at 6:57 PM
How about a short story rather than a book? My vote is for Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart."

From Marcus Guimaraes
Posted June 24, 2011 at 8:53 PM
Scott Pilgrim could make for a great show. Universal, if you're paying attention, I think you've got a great property to go into the Fear Factor building in your hands, it's just a matter of using it.

Hitchhiker's Guide has a lot of material to cull from, and I'm certain there's something good in there. Its sense of humor is a bit too dry for mosts Americans though, so I wouldn't want the soul of the franchise to be sacrificed just to make the attraction.

Tron really needs its own ride. Such a great art style that would be amazing to be immersed in. Disney's sitting on what could potentially be the coolest thing I've ever seen.

A Kingdom Keepers attraction in Disney may be a bit too... meta... for most people to make sense of. No offense to the people who suggested it, it's an interesting property. Maybe a Kim Possible-style event where you get missions to do around the parks would work, and timed events could really make nights more interesting.

From Ben Pope
Posted June 27, 2011 at 5:11 PM
^Scott Pilgrim is one of my all time favorite movies, and I would love to see it turned into a show.

Also, I'm a pretty big Percy Jackson fan and I think an attraction based off of it would be great.

From Manny Barron
Posted June 27, 2011 at 8:31 PM
Where's Waldo. Those books are great, they would make a fun theme park attraction.

From Heather Olson
Posted June 28, 2011 at 5:06 PM
A kids' ride based on "The Monster at the End of This Book" would allow me to die a happy lady.

From James Koehl
Posted June 28, 2011 at 5:55 PM
"Mary Poppins." The continued popularity of the books, the movie, and the Broadway musical show that this is a timeless classic that will always have a place in the Disney pantheon.

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