Shane's Amusement Attic

Shane,

Based on your experience how often did the city of Santa Clara kill projects like this and provide roadblocks versus a lack of "want" (for lack of a better word) from Paramount to invest in big attractions the park?

Shane, You said that Paramount Parks had to buy rights for usage of Paramount Names, Does Six Flags have the same Policy with Warner Bros?

Of course. They pay an expensive license fee for every intellectual property they use. After the newness of the attraction wears off the license fee can continue to be very expensive that is why some of the branding gets dropped after a few seasons such as "Outer Limits" Flight of Fear.

Even in studio parks such as Universal I would imagine that even though the movie based attraction is a universal property thaw actual movie is owned by producers, writers and the stars themselves and license fees must be paid for them. You can bet that Universal Studios is paying huge license fees for most of their attractions ( Joey would be more the expert on this since he works for them). The one exception to this might be Disney with their movies. Anyone know how that works?

^ Same thing goes with other film studio licensed products, When i was a Producer for MGM and Disney, we had to pay heavy licensing fees, and get permission on subject matter for properties you would think the studios owned. For example, when working for MGM, and I was the interactive Producer of the James Bond franchise, and even though MGM distributes those films, we still had to pay several entities for the rights. That included Danjaq (the production company), Pierce Brosnan (who played Bond at the time), and several other writers, actors, etc, etc....

And they all had a "say" in what content we produced, and if they felt strongly enough, they could change or even kill an entire project. For example, I clearly remember one very important Bond meeting where we were all flown out to Pinewood Studios for a meeting with the director, actors, and production company of "The World is Not Enough" to discuss "the effects of Columbine" in video games, where the producers of the Bond franchise suggested that the video games not have any weapons in them, so as to not to promote violence, and instead be "gadget based puzzle games." Yes, this was actually suggested, and the entire project was nearly cancelled.

So yeah, I can totally relate to what Shane is saying....

This is, in my opinion, one of the best message threads ON THE ENTIRE INTERNET! I've followed it from the very beginning, and it just continues to get better and better! Amazing history! Shane is THE BOMB! (OK, showing my age there, for a bit!)

I can never get enough of these "inside" historic stories... Thank you Shane!!!

Burning question: Was "Stealth" ever really intended to have a "Mission: Impossible" theme, as has long been rumored?

 

It was discussed for Stealth to be a Mission Impossible theme. As a matter of fact "Stealth" was the name given to the project while negotiating was done to get the license. Tom Cruise is a major partner in that franchise and he is the one that killed the deal not Paramount.

So it WAS Cruise all along... what a party-pooper. An M:I theme would have been SO GOOD for that attraction.

I blame Scientology. ALL HAIL XENU!!!!!!

With all these planned projects that never came to be, I am pretty sure all of the neighbors own decibel meters, and check them on a regular basis. They are probably waiting for the day when they will pick up ONE WHOLE DECIBEL from the park, and sue to have the place closed. A typical conversation goes like this:

Family member 1: OMG OMG OMG! ONE DECIBEL!

Family member 2: YOU'RE RIGHT! Let's sue!

Family member 3: Wait! That was just a car outside.

Family members 1 and 2: Awww!

So, when is CGA going to build Tunnel: The Ride? Lets see how locals complain about that one!

Why couldn't Paramount build the new Front Gate, now we are stuck with complaining offices on that location. Such ashame...

I love the idea for the Beavis and butthead theme!

also, @Roco...HELLYEAH!

With all these planned projects that never came to be, I am pretty sure all of the neighbors own decibel meters, and check them on a regular basis. They are probably waiting for the day when they will pick up ONE WHOLE DECIBEL from the park, and sue to have the place closed. A typical conversation goes like this:

 

Family member 1: OMG OMG OMG! ONE DECIBEL!

Family member 2: YOU'RE RIGHT! Let's sue!

Family member 3: Wait! That was just a car outside.

Family members 1 and 2: Awww!

 

So, when is CGA going to build Tunnel: The Ride? Lets see how locals complain about that one!

I'd say let's extend Flight Deck to run right beyond the creek behind the neighbor's houses (and particularly that ugly blue house)...or build another hollow-spined (no sand) B&M coaster right there and run it along the whole creek. Or we can shelf the B&Ms altogether and somehow get S:EFK relocated up this way...that'll be some legit noise to worry about

This is museum-quality material. Just awesome. Thanks so much for sharing all this.

 

Personally, I think the "Beavis and Butthead Do Great America" concept is hysterical and brilliant, and considering that new episodes are coming soon (can I get a HELLYEAH?!), it would have held up well as a theme. But that's just me.

 

Burning question: Was "Stealth" ever really intended to have a "Mission: Impossible" theme, as has long been rumored?

 

It was discussed for Stealth to be a Mission Impossible theme. As a matter of fact "Stealth" was the name given to the project while negotiating was done to get the license. Tom Cruise is a major partner in that franchise and he is the one that killed the deal not Paramount.

That's really interesting Shane, as far as I'm aware, Thorpe Parks' Stealth was only a project name too, at the last minute they dropped "the edge" after printing ride signs and merchandising and went back to Stealth.

So it's been the backup plan twice!

Dave

The Aftershock and Alienator concepts looked awesome, I love the whole "destroyed city" thing! When I saw that the Brady Bunch was a considered theme for this ride, I couldn't stop laughing, epically at that name! If I saw a or heard of a roller coaster called "Groovy Train", I would automatically think its lame. For the ride its self, it looked kind of boring to me, its drop, hill, turnaround, hill, hill, turnaround, brakes. The elevator lift would of been cool, but unless there some great airtime or laterals, I think it would just be a short version of Wildthing, fun, but not the awesome ride you think it would be.

I'd have to agree on the themes...the best one (to me anyway) was the Aftershock theme...so fitting being in CA. I think I mentioned this before, it looks like it would have been another one of those 'short' coasters much like Vortex and Flight Deck (not that Flight Deck being a shorter coaster's a bad thing because that ride packs a punch, and any longer of a ride on Vortex in its rough state would be more of a headache coming off).

What I do wonder is that if this coaster had come into reality, what reliability would have been like (being, the elevator system). I'm no expert/engineer but I can almost see that being a first of its kind and lifting that much train up quite a distance, I can almost forsee a lot of down time...no pun intended

Gotta say, this thread is all kinds of awesome. Thanks for all the pics. I just totally nerded out to all the old WDW pics.

What I do wonder is that if this coaster had come into reality, what reliability would have been like (being, the elevator system). I'm no expert/engineer but I can almost see that being a first of its kind and lifting that much train up quite a distance, I can almost forsee a lot of down time...no pun intended

Of course with all prototype systems there are going to be problems to work out but all in all this really wasn’t any new sophisticated system, nothing more than a transfer track that moved vertically rather than horizontally.

Those were very interesting concept drawings and theme ideas! It's too bad that it wasn't approved to be built.

I think the Aftershock theme would've been the best for that ride in that area, and the idea of the 'evacuation vehicle' being knocked back down to the ground was creative. I wonder what other themes would've worked with that ride, and what other parks would've considered using this ride if it was successful...

Burning question: Was "Stealth" ever really intended to have a "Mission: Impossible" theme, as has long been rumored?

 

It was discussed for Stealth to be a Mission Impossible theme. As a matter of fact "Stealth" was the name given to the project while negotiating was done to get the license. Tom Cruise is a major partner in that franchise and he is the one that killed the deal not Paramount.

 

So it WAS Cruise all along... what a party-pooper. An M:I theme would have been SO GOOD for that attraction.

 

I blame Scientology. ALL HAIL XENU!!!!!!

Maybe they should have inserted Xenu into the Mission Impossible theming somehow to get it approved?

What's amazing to me is how much the Scientologists still deny Xenu and all of the sci-fi stuff that scientology is based on.

That looks like it would have been an impressive ride. I'm still curious about what size the train would have been if it was an elevator style lift. It just seems like it could have been enormously heavy and seems like the elevator could be slow to cycle.

 

How many ride concepts get developed to this extent and then shelved? Is this fairly common or quite rare?

The train was a typical Morgan Hyper Coaster train and like I said before this really was nothing more than a vertical transfer track and was used to save the space that a typical 200’ tall hyper coaster uses.

Shane,

 

Based on your experience how often did the city of Santa Clara kill projects like this and provide roadblocks versus a lack of "want" (for lack of a better word) from Paramount to invest in big attractions the park?

The hyper coaster was first proposed to the city and was shot down because it was too close to the property line. This is the coaster that was originally designed from Morgan and shown in the plans. After it was shot down the coaster was moved further from the property line, right on the midway of County Fair and within the Demon…it was shot down again and from their the project just lost steam.

This shows the original site and layout of the coaster.

This shows the second attempt of moving the coaster further from the property line. The design modifications were never developed by Morgan since the coaster was shot down again by the city.

It's a bummer the city kept shootting down the ideas.

Gold Springs Country

Season 5 seems to be turning out the "season that never was". Here is another exclusive to Shane's Amusement Attic: Gold Springs Country.

San Diego once was a hot bed of theme park activity. Too bad none of them ever came to reality. It seems this area surely could have supported a major theme park. Perhaps the stars were never in alignment for this beautiful city to have a park...but I would guess it had more to do with money than stars.

A few years after AeroWorld closed up shop another park came into play further east of Downtown on an Indian Reservation that is now know as Viejas. This park paled in comparison to the uniqueness of AeroWorld. Its themed lands were pretty much "off the shelf" themed lands...the typical western land, adventure land, storybook land and future land...yawn. However Landmark did a beautiful job in disguising those simple ideas into some pretty cool looking themed areas. I particularly like the idea for their water park based on surf songs (maybe this figured into conception of Cowabunga Bay...maybe not).

Gold Springs Country was more than just a theme park it was a entertainment destination which included a shopping and dinning complex, waterpark and major amphitheater. It would have been a great addition to the area and with the giant success the Indians have seen with Viejas I am sure this park would have been a hit.

Although the park never became to exist, one great thing came out of it. I was invited to a investor meeting for the park where I met one of the park designers who worked for Landmark at the time. His name was Anthony. Anthony later became the VP of design for Paramount Parks. He remembered meeting me at this meeting and thought I would be a great addition to the Paramount team. He offered me a job as the creative director for Carowinds...and the rest is history.

Wow, that looks like it would have been awesome and could have rivaled Disneyland.

Shane, I don't know where you hide all this stuff (your attic, I know) but this season has been epic. I can see your point of all the "lands" and I was glad to see they actually put a little thought into it.

A few things stood out: 1. Calico Mine - Was that going to be a knock off of the one at Knotts? 2. Beach Boys' - I assume since they were using their name and song titles in the water park attractions that either they had an IP or investment deal? 3. Holy Water Batman! I don't know much about SD, but that park looked like it was going to be a water hog, and by today's standards, that would likely be a no no in California. Was the land it was to be situated on already have a lake or was it to be man made?

Thanks again!

Very interesting...it almost seems as if they took the best qualities of classic Knotts and mixed them with the best of Disney!

This park could have very well rivaled Disney had it been built...the level of detail and theming on this park looks astounding.

Was there any kind of an estimate as to how many people this would have drawn in?

If you read some of the story lines, I wonder who stole off whom? Was this before Tokyo Disneysea and Splash Mountain?

Thanks for this latest foray into your attic. It looks likes a good well rounded plan.