If this portion of the trilogy equals the LOTR will that bring Middle Earth to a theme park near you.
While its does have challenges from expense to build on a proper scale and lack of an easy sale item such as Butter beer, Princess dresses or wands.
It does bring a ultra popular book series and when all said one of the most popular movie franchise of all time.
Ripsaw as Rivendale
Sweet Haven becomes Long Lake
And the shops are the shire, knock down ampitheater and make a Mt Doom ride
Nice Idea Dom
Different post subject...but also think Marvel could make a great Transylvania
Mad Scientist for Dr Doom
Spiderman becomes Dracula or Von Helsing if a Dracula castle goes where ampitheater is with a themed ride and a winged coaster launching from its top
Storm force is surrounded by trees and themed for a bad night in the wilderness
Streets get cobblestones buildings refaced
Captain America becomes a permanent walk thru haunted house and the lagoon side has an homage to the Black Lagoon (yes technically wrong but I think works)
"It might be advisable [...] to let the Americans do what seems good to them — as long as it was possible [...] to veto anything from or influenced by the Disney studios (for all whose works I have a heartfelt loathing)."
Then there is this gem, from a letter to a fan in 1964:
"I recognize [Walt Disney's] talent, but it has always seemed to me hopelessly corrupted. Though in most of the 'pictures' proceeding from his studios there are admirable or charming passages, the effect of all of them to me is disgusting. Some have given me nausea"
Since his family protects these works fiercely, I doubt there is any situation where they would agree to letting Disney have the rights. Ever.
Some other park might get the rights, but I sincerely doubt it. While I would love to have a Middle Earth section of a theme park, I really doubt that his family would sign off on anything.
Really like Toon Lagoon for Middle Earth, I always thought JP for Middle Earth...but Toon actually make more sense
Dom what you think of Marvel conversion to Transylvania
Not to be a buzz kill here, but Middle Earth is not coming to a theme park for the foreseeable future.
Tim's right. The Tolkiens are super protective. Recently they sued Warner Bros. over Lord of the Rings Online, saying it wasn't part of the contract with the films.
Could it be done? Yes. It wouldn't be too difficult to design a park where each area represents a different region of Middle-earth, and there are enough locations and events within the stories that a whole park's worth of attractions could be created. However, it would probably have to be located in the United Kingdom and the Tolkien family would probably want complete control over which concepts are and are not included. These alone would be enough to discourage most developers, although a Middle-earth park could possibly become the most popular non-Disney or Universal park.
Could it be done? Yes. Is it likely to be? No.
Anyway, the whole time I kept thinking: "Why isn't this world at a theme park near us?" Just some really great, immersive environments, and stellar action sequences that would easily lend themselves to theme park attractions and shows. Middle Earth has to be the Holy Grail of creative properties out there now that Star Wars, Marvel, and Harry Potter have been gobbled up. Someone better be talking to the Tolkien people and offering them whatever the heck they want. "Back up the Brinks Truck," as the saying goes....
http://idealbuildout.blogspot.com/2012/08/illustrative-plan-dhs.html?m=1
Seems like it'd be an amazing park, overall, if Disney would actually invest in making the park what it could (should) be. I believe SWW mentioned once that he had drawn up a plan for an entire park set in Middle-Earth, but he hasn't posted that one yet.
Anyway, I think it might be good at DHS. I feel that a Star Wars land would be good
If you think it is a money thing, think of this. After Return of the King was released, the studios wanted to hop right onto making The Hobbit. There were 2 obstacles in their way. The first was that United Artists had acquired the rights (back when they could actually acquire the rights) before the original movies came out, and MGM eventually bought United Artists. New Line, of course, was not happy with that, and Peter Jackson was not happy with how much money he got from New Line for the original films. So, Peter Jackson wanted to make the film, but along the way they had to have some lawsuits. Many, many lawsuits, complicated further by the fact that MGM went bankrupt during this. That eventually got resolved, but you see the result with not 1 studio being responsible for this, but 3 (New Line, WB, and MGM.) Yes, this production (from the financial end) was a mess.
Second was that the family absolutely did not want a Hobbit movie, even though a studio (or 3) owned the rights. This meant even more lawsuits. Of course, they lost them, cause the rights were signed away legally. However, no one expects the family to sign away anymore rights, including the rights to any of the other Middle Earth books like The Silmarillion. With the simple fact that the Lord of the Rings trilogy grossed, approximately, a bajillion dollars, and that the Hobbit films will probably bring in somewhere near the same, they could sell the rights to The Silmarillion for an absolute ton. They won't, even Peter Jackson admits they won't. It's not about cash, it's about keeping the texts that JRR Tolkien wrote safe from others.
So, yeah, I think every fan of the series would love, absolutely love, for there to be a Middle Earth in a theme park. However, I am afraid it will just never happen.
If Tolkien and his family had never wanted his books to be used commercially, he never would have published "The Hobbit" nor "The Lord of the Rings," and his family would have never consented to the adaptation of his books to the screen. So why should we even think that the books will never be brought to life in a theme park or appear in the theater?
If the right amount of money is thrown at the Tolkien family as well as allowing them an acceptable amount of creative control, they will grant the rights to somebody to put the stories in a theme park. It may not be Disney because of the purported animus that Tolkien had towards Walt Disney, but somebody, probably Universal, is going to bring these works to a theme park one day.
Effectively, they will protect his works for as long as they can (ie, til they become public domain.) Until then, I sincerely doubt we will see a theme park presence. I wish I was wrong, but the Tolkien family fights everything here (including all of the Peter Jackson films, they *really* don't want any commercialization of Tolkien's works, despite the fact he had the books commercially published.) I know, it all makes little sense, he published the books and made a ton of money off of them, but they are trying to keep the 'purity' of his vision, akin to how Alan Moore has basically shunned every single adaptation of his work since none of them can be his pure vision. It is, quite frankly, a bit nuts. But it is how they do things, for whatever reason.
As for Tolken disliking Disney, how about PL Travers (author of Mary Poppins)? She hated the idea of Disney turning her works into a movie. Now, her character is just a relevant, made a career for Julie Andrews, and created one of the best live action Disney movies ever made.
J.R.R. Tolkien had no problem publishing his works or selling the rights for movies and merchandising to "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings." The Tolkien article on Wikipedia even indicates that Tolkien wished he had published the books and sold the rights even earlier than he had so he could have enjoyed the profits and retired sooner.
The problem appears to be with Tolkien's son Christopher who seems to want to define himself as his father's archivist and protector of the crown jewels. Christopher Tolkien has spent an inordinate amount of time cataloging and completing (some of the unfinished manuscripts) his father's works. From a pop psychology viewpoint, the son is trying to live up to his father's legacy and keep himself relevant by being overprotective of the materials his father created.
I seriously doubt that the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of J.R.R. Tolkien will have any problem licensing the Tolkien library to the maximum extent possible once the son relinquishes control of the Tolkien literary estate to the younger generations. I’ve seen it happen before with all kinds of businesses and ventures. The first generation creates it, the second generation sustains it, and the third generation liquidates it. The allure of big and easy money is too powerful.
I think creating Middle-earth in two locations as two different time lines(Hobbit time and 50ish years later) would work the best.
I'm not sure if I like the idea of using the area near MIB.
