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NEWS: £2 billion theme park "The London Resort" announced!


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Found this interesting article while perusing my favorite Doctor Who fansite...

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/bbc-theme-park-set-to-feature-top-gear-doctor-who-and-sherlock-to-open-in-2012-9915192.html

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11284388/BBC-to-open-theme-park-to-exploit-Doctor-Who-and-Top-Gear-brands.html

 

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/dec/10/bbc-theme-park-sherlock-doctor-who-top-gear-hollywood

 

A theme park set to feature Top Gear, Doctor Who and Sherlock is coming to British soil.

 

BBC Worldwide has signed a deal with London Resort Company Holdings (LRCH) to allow a number of its popular programmes and characters to be “brought to life” in a new £2 billion theme park

 

The property developer has signed an agreement with BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the corporation, to feature the BBC’s intellectual property in the multi-billion pound London Paramount Entertainment resort, due to open in Kent in 2020.

 

BBC characters and programmes will feature in the theme park alongside Paramount properties, but it is not yet known which shows will be included.

 

The £2 billion theme park, which is due to be built on brownfield land on the Swanscombe Peninsula in north Kent, is set to have a broad international appeal for tourists coming to London.

 

It is thought that the BBC’s most popular programmes will feature in the theme park, including Doctor Who, Sherlock and Top Gear.

 

Stephen Davies, director of live events at BBC Worldwide, said: “We’re always looking for opportunities to extend fans’ enjoyment of their favourite shows and the idea behind the resort is a really exciting way of celebrating the very special place the BBC has in British culture.”

 

David Testa, director of LRCH, said: “We are delighted to bring the world’s leading public service broadcaster on board this project.

 

“The BBC has played an instrumental role in shaping the British entertainment industry for nearly a century, creating some of the most iconic and cherished characters on TV and radio.

 

“It seems only right therefore that its programmes will be present at the new London Paramount Entertainment Resort, which will combine the glamour of Hollywood with the best of British culture.”

 

 

This is an interesting idea, absolutely! But, like many other developments like this, we won't know if it will actually happen until it opens its gates...

Edited by jedimaster1227
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Now this is interesting with the fact that they have now got the IP to Doctor Who. The rumour for Thorpe Parks 2016 dark ride has been a Doctor Who theme and I can't see LRCH wanting a park that will be so close to their property to used an IP I'm sure has cost them a considerable amount of money to acquire.

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A lot of news outlets seem to be referring to this project as a "BBC theme park" but I'm pretty sure the BBC IP will only exist in a large "land" or two, much like how Islands of Adventure splits between Marvel, Seuss, Jurassic Park, cartoons, Harry Potter, etc but without the islands.

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  • 1 month later...

There's now a Facebook page for Paramount London here:

https://www.facebook.com/londonparamount?fref=ts

 

There's quite a lot of interesting details and progress reports such as what looks like a land purchase agreement recently which opens up more land for them to grow on. I seem to remember a report says the Swanscombe Peninsular is twice the size of the Olympic Park in London which was absolutely huge.

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Nobody linked to the website yet? It has lots of info - http://www.londonparamount.info/

 

From the "rides and attractions" page:

 

The resort will have over 50 rides exciting rides and attractions all themed around some of the most famous films, television programmes, games and other artistic works of our partners.

Attractions will include:

Signature entertainment shows and cultural events

12 major rides

Water rides

Family rides

Adrenaline rides

The heart of the park will open to the public in Easter 2020, with additional rides and attractions scheduled to be unveiled soon after in the following years.

 

Potentially a very exciting project! The Facebook page also said something about the largest indoor waterpark in Europe. There's also a high-res image of that gate pic on the home page of the web site, and you can see what looks like a suspended coaster going up a mountain.

 

I hope this project works out as planned!

londonparamount.jpg.1f591920c0e92656705c7621b2bf3798.jpg

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Paramount London have been doing public consultations where they invite people to small exhibitions and ask for their thoughts. The results have been published and are available here: http://www.londonparamount.info/media/1048/your-feedback-from-stage-two.pdf

 

Most attendees were local residents, and feedback has been incredibly positive with 48% approving of the project, and 34% strongly approving. Transport is the biggest concern but still 47% approve, and 16% strongly approve.

 

It also shows what aspect of the resort people are most excited about. Unsurprisingly it is the theme park that is the most anticipated part of Paramount, but people are also excited for restaurants, west end style shows and the cinema.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry for the double post, and hope it's OK to use this thread as a general Paramount London news thread, but they have just released a new video which has a lot of artists impressions from the park and resort:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttqGaf3-nIo&feature=youtu.be

 

15 million visitors seems quite optimistic if they're talking about park attendance, but as a resort I guess that will be easily achievable if they're also factoring in the City Walk style entertainment area etc etc.

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I see they've started using Paramount Murcia artwork.

 

In that park, Rango is/was going to have a full land with lots of buildings, including a 4D theater, as well as a mine train coaster and river rapids.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As for the Star Trek coaster, in Spain that was originally going to be a clone of Warner Bros. Australia's Superman (Intamin hydraulic), but when Parques Reunidos was selected to manage the project, the Star Trek coaster changed to a clone of Kennywood's Sky Rocket (Premier LSM).

 

 

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Sorry for the double post, and hope it's OK to use this thread as a general Paramount London news thread, but they have just released a new video which has a lot of artists impressions from the park and resort:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttqGaf3-nIo&feature=youtu.be

 

15 million visitors seems quite optimistic if they're talking about park attendance, but as a resort I guess that will be easily achievable if they're also factoring in the City Walk style entertainment area etc etc.

 

 

Interesting video.... I'd love to know what triggered Paramount to make the decision to go back into the Amusement Park part of the entertainment industry. The video sort of touted this as 'new' venture for them as if it's part of the industry that they've never explored before, but we all know they recently sold their chain of Paramount Parks after years of being in the industry. So why dive back in now? And why London?

 

Also, why Rango? Did that movie really do so well in theatres that it deserves an entire "world" in the theme park? Star Wars and Harry Potter "lands" I can understand because those are iconic stories that multiple generations know and generations to come will probably also know them for quite a while. But Rango? I would have expected Star Trek or something. Though I'm sure that's just one of many themed areas. It does look really cool, I'm just not sure people will still get the reference in 5-10 years... Must be planning a sequel lol

 

This is a pretty massive undertaking. I'm interested to see how it all plays out.

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A "Rango Land" could be cool--a nice spin on the "traditional" Old West theming found in many European theme parks. The movie had a look that was familiar (a western-movie town), yet distinctive (everyday objects as buildings, such as the Pepto Bismol bottle "outhouse").

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Sorry to put a dampener on things, but it's been suggested that the video is fake and uses concept images from Paramount Murcia. The youtube channel links to a Facebook page which isn't the official one as well. Admittedly it's certainly an impressive effort if it is indeed fake.

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Oh if that's the case then I'm sorry - BDG mentioned that some of the artwork was from the Spanish project (which I don't know much about) so you're probably right as I'm pretty sure the two projects are completely independent of each other. I think Paramount are only really putting their name to the project and letting investors use their IP

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  • 2 months later...

Around 50 companies in the Swanscombe area have received letters asking for details on their stake in the land local to where the park is planned to be built (tenancy durations etc) which a lot of people are considering could be the first stage of compulsory purchases requiring them to relocate. The park have said that these letters don't necessarily mean that they will be bulldozing those businesses, but that it's part of the development process.

 

Often this will mean court cases as businesses try and protect themselves and fight for the best compensation, but it is positive in that the project still seems to be advancing. Tarmac have already said they will be selling their land on the peninsula to Paramount.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-32253887

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  • 3 weeks later...

New artwork...

 

 

Port Paramount :

 

 

 

 

 

Land of Legends:

 

 

 

Adventure Isle:

 

 

 

Not sure what to think of it.

 

On the one hand, it looks great... but on the other hand, everything looks like a Disney rip-off.

Nothing screams Paramount or even BBC.

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I think the artists' impressions we're seeing are deliberately vague but aspirational at the moment because I guess a lot of the details have yet to be hammered out in terms of IP. I think they're generally just to give a gist of how the land lies as opposed to actually showing any of the rides or themes in any detail.

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  • 2 years later...

I think this project will never happen. Paramount discontinued their licence agreement with the resort's holding company:

 

RESORT PLANNING APPLICATION REMAINS ON TRACK FOR NOVEMBER 2017 AS PARAMOUNT AND LRCH DISCONTINUE LICENCE AGREEMENT

 

Today, London Resort Company Holdings Limited (“LRCH”) and Paramount Licensing Inc. (“Paramount”) have jointly agreed to discontinue the licence agreement for the proposed entertainment resort. This announcement does not have an effect on the timing of the planned Development Consent Order (DCO) submission for the resort in November 2017.

 

Humphrey Percy, CEO, LRCH, said:

 

“We want to express our sincere thanks to the many members of the Paramount team who have worked with us since we took over the Project in August 2013. This announcement does not have an effect on the timing of our planned Development Consent Order (DCO) submission in November 2017. We are working closely with the local authorities, landowners and local community, as well as our other stakeholders, and we very much look forward to showing our plans to the public as part of our final stage of consultation prior to submitting later this year.”

 

“We are creating a unique entertainment destination offering a scale and quality unprecedented in the UK where much loved characters and stories will be brought to life from iconic movies, television, books, electronic gaming and toys. Just 17 minutes from Central London, one of the most visited cities in the world and with an investment of £3.2 billion, the resort will be a global tourist destination.”

 

In line with the agreement between LRCH and Paramount, the terms are confidential.

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I can't help but think that this project is a bit doomed now, from what I remember they didn't have the easiest time getting investors on board, and now that the big name IP has backed out, I can't imagine it'll go down well with those putting up the money now that the resort has no clear focus.

 

I think the only way this development would really work would be if it is truly unique compared to the other parks in the UK, and the movie studio IP could've worked really well, as apart from a few kid specific IPs featured in the parks around the UK, there isn't anything else to compete with this aspect.

 

It may have a great central location to London, but I don't know if this would be a gift or a curse. Yes it would be very accessible to many people, but London already has a lot of tourist attractions specific to the city, so would all these tourist really use a day or two to visit a theme park while visiting London? The example of Hard Rock Park springs to mind, with it being close to the tourist trap of Myrtle Beach, but nobody visited because it's not what they go there for, it might be an extreme example, but I think there's potential for similarities.

 

It'll be interesting to see if they manage to secure any other IPs to bolster the project as they do still state "...characters and stories will be brought to life from iconic movies, television, books electronic gaming and toys.". I guess they still have the BBC agreement in place.

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  • 2 years later...

In an interesting twist in this park's ongoing journey, The London Resort has reignited its partnership with Paramount for their intellectual property alongside BBC Studios' and ITV Studios' properties in the new park. The London Resort is now slated to open in 2024!

 

http://londonresort.info/news/paramount-pictures-and-the-london-resort-reignite-partnership/

 

65715990_2135610103204772_8711934624101564416_o.thumb.jpg.5b225dbe5f714772e08f81666770ab5b.jpg

The London Resort, a global destination theme park, due to open in 2024, announced today that it has entered into a new partnership with Paramount Pictures. The studio joins BBC Studios and ITV Studios, contributing from among their outstanding range of Intellectual Property. The movie studio is home to some of the world’s most iconic films including The Godfather, The Italian Job, the Mission: Impossible franchise and, post-apocalyptic hit, A Quiet Place, and will be working with The London Resort to create a range of awe-inspiring experiences.

 

PY Gerbeau, newly appointed Chief Executive of London Resort Company Holdings (LRCH) said: “The new partnership with Paramount is fantastic news for everyone. Now the best of Hollywood will be joining the best of British from BBC Studios and ITV Studios, to create amazing and unique experiences for the whole family.

 

“I am delighted to join The London Resort and to play my part in helping to create a world-class destination to rival all others. Central to that strategy is to partner with the best brands from across TV, film, music and entertainment. Having Paramount on board is a major step towards realising that ambition.”

 

Kevin Suh, President of Themed Entertainment and Consumer Products for Paramount Pictures said: “The London Resort represents a truly global resort opportunity and we’re delighted to be playing our part in bringing iconic movies to life in truly immersive experiences and rides. We’re also delighted, as the most iconic studio in Hollywood, to be sharing our unparalleled catalogue of instantly recognisable films and characters.”

 

The London Resort has pursued a strategy of working with individual partners to create a range of world leading experiences – all under one roof. The new deal will see Paramount join BBC Studios and ITV Studios, which has licensed its kids brands, in being part of one of the most visited tourist attractions in Europe.

 

The London Resort is set over 535 acres – the equivalent of 136 Wembley Stadiums. Three times larger than other UK parks, it will have 200 acres dedicated to rides and experiences and a bespoke entertainment district devoted to a full-suite of hospitality experiences including the provision of thousands of hotel rooms.

 

Millions of pounds have already been invested in The London Resort which will be one of the largest construction projects across Europe. Situated just 17 minutes from London, on the Swanscombe Peninsula, Kent, the resort will create thousands of jobs and once open will be a major regional contributor to the UK economy.

 

Renowned international entrepreneur and leisure industry executive PY Gerbeau joined The London Resort as Chief Executive in June 2019. He brings a vast wealth of experience from across the tourism, retail, sport, entertainment and real estate industries, including roles as co-founder and CEO of the largest and best performing leisure investment vehicle, X-Leisure, He also successfully turned around the fortunes of both Euro Disney and the Millennium Dome.

65504752_2141835029248946_7429254658469658624_n.jpg.06be59298b795422926cd7b26cafb3ac.jpg

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