Fresh News About Paramount Parks Projects In London and Spain From Mike Bartok, EVP Licensing at Paramount Pictures

Blooloop has posted on July 28 a long and interesting interview of Mike Bartok, EVP - Licensing at Paramount Pictures. And Mike Bartok brings us good news about several Paramount Parks projects, including the ones in London and in Murcia, Spain, and even the Star Trek project - The Red Sea Astrarium - in Jordan!

As we know Paramount took the decision to move away from the role of attraction operator, and Mike Bartok is now looking after the licensing of Paramount’s wealth of IP which includes many much loved classics such as Star Trek, The Godfather and Forrest Gump.

Here are some excerpts of the interview in which Mike talks about the parks projects, and you can read it in full on Blooloop HERE.

How is Paramount looking to leverage IP?

Not as an owner anymore - we sold the parks and focussed on IP.  We’ve shifted from being an owner operator to being a licensor, designer and non-financial partner in the projects we’re participating in.
We do get involved in terms of the strategy for the ongoing operations.  We consult with our partners and have varied roles - obviously with our experience of running parks we’re in a different position than many of the other content licensors.  We’re not an operator but we’re a fairly active business partner.

How is the Paramount theme park in Murcia progressing  ( rendering above ) ?

It’s going quite well.  Building a theme park is like building a city and its going to take a bit of time, but our development partner has commenced the infrastructure on the project and we’re anticipating beginning the attraction construction in the next few months.  Hopefully the park will be open to the public sometime in 2016.  We haven’t set an official date yet but the park has been fully designed and we feel the next step is to build it.

We’re really excited about it.  We think of it as the next generation of theme park using all the cutting edge technology that’s available to us as well as putting into our programme a commitment to sustainability and green technology which is something that theme parks haven’t been known for in the past - we’re very committed to incorporating that and being sustainable.

The parks we owned, the ones we sold, we bought them and rebranded then and they were really good.  But we’re really excited to have the opportunity to design and see come to fruition a “ground-up” Paramount park.  When you rebrand you pick and choose, you don’t rebrand everything, and as you add attractions you overlay your brand.  When you build form the ground up every inch of it is Paramount which is cool.

Each land will have its own feel; every place that you walk you’ll have some theming either from the movies or Paramount, or the Southern California lifestyle which we’re trying to incorporate.

And what stage is the UK theme park at ( rendering above ) ?

That’s still in quite an early stage.  We’ve done some early concept work [see header image].  Planning and approval processes in the UK are quite lengthy but our development partner in the UK has made some good progress and we’re anticipating that we’ll receive planning approvals in the near future, and with the design work we’ll be able to move the project forward.

Are there any Star Trek Attractions being developed?

We really only do stand-alone attractions with Star Trek as we have a great history with it.  We have the one in Las Vegas and we’re fairly far along in terms of completing the film for the project in Jordan - The Red Sea Astrarium - with Bad Robot which should be very exciting.  That’s going to be a centrepiece attraction with incredible, state-of-the-art technology.  It’s more than just a film, it will be the first attraction ever made to be 4D with actual freefall mechanisms in there.  It should be fantastic and with Bad Robot involved we will have that authenticity.

Star Trek fans are keen on authenticity.  Does this present special challenges when developing an attraction?

Actually Star Trek is a great and one of our creatives’ favourites because it’s so vast.

The Star Trek universe has been created on both film and TV, so for the attractions that we’ve done every inch has been viewed and has to be authentic.  Some of the other IPs can be a little lighter but for the Star Trek World, it really requires full commitment creatively and financially to pull it off.

Which locations do you think are particularly exciting for the future of IP development?

We’ve looked in many places.  Without being too specific, there’s a lot of great markets in Asia, China especially and the Middle East.  Those are areas that have our significant attention.  We’ve had the good fortune to have a couple of projects in Europe, which is a mature market but were excited about it.  Asia is very great opportunity with growing economies.  We’ve also had some success in the Middle East, particularly with our hotel projects, and we’d like to expand that into successes in the theme park and attraction world as well.

We looked many years ago at Brazil and Argentina but there’s not as much development going on in those markets right now as there is in Asia and the Middle East.  Perhaps after the World Cup is finished.  Like on the UK project, after the Olympics there’s all this infrastructure in place now to be capitalised on.  I think Brazil and Argentina are interesting opportunities.


Again, don't miss the full interview on Blooloop HERE as Mark talks about others Paramount projects including hotels and others attractions!

Paramount Park Murcia Project in Details , With Brand New 3D Artwork , Opening End 2015

We'll talk again today about Spain Paramount Park Murcia project. The project is not only going on but apparently they've found the funds and the 390M Euros project was even presented at Fitur, a big International Tourism Fair, in Spain. Brand new exciting 3D renderings were released as well as artworks in high-definition and more details about the rides, and these will give you a better idea of how will look this Paramount park which will be located at Alhama de Murcia when it will open, end 2015. 

The project, as i told you in my previous article, will also include the construction of another area called Lifestyle Center with condos and office buildings, leisure gardens, seven 4 or 3 stars hotels and one 5 stars hotels including a casino,  malls, dining and night life areas, business and convention center, an auditorium and exhibition hall for cultural events, etc... but today we will concentrate on what is the most interesting for us, i.e the theme park itself as it will include shows and rides, some from famous movies. Let's start with a great bird eye view of how will look the park and as usual click to enlarge all pictures.

The park will include five lands, so let's start by the entrance "Paseo Paramount" and the first 3D renderings.

Guests will enter the park and this land by going through a recreation of the legendary gate of Paramount Studios in Hollywood and will then find a entrance plaza with a fountain followed by the typical shopping street and services, and also a direct access to the park for hotel guests that will stay at the Paramount Park hotel.

Guests will then arrive to a large central square connecting to other lands, with on the right access to the Plaza Futura - Paramount Park "Tomorrowland" - and on the left to Adventure City. In that square will be the first of the attractions, a cybernetic fountain which will play with lights , music and water effects to create a great show welcoming the visitors.

Guests will also find on that square one of the main attractions of the park, "Paramount Live", a large auditorium with shows and musicals inspired from the most famous Paramount movies. Finally, it will also be the venue for the "Festival of Paramount Walk" , a parade with the main characters from Paramount which at night will become a light show.

The large central square is overlooking the lake with stunning views on the rest of the park, and with also a small garden promenade overlooking the lake that serves as a shortcut to communicate faster with The Enchanted Forest and Rango's West lands.

"Adventure City" will be the next land on the left, and here are 3D renderings and the map of the land which might look small but in fact include a large space for future expansion as they plan to add a large roller coaster a few years after park's opening.

However, Adventure City will be one of the most interesting land and should be attractive to the public as it is here that guests will find areas inspired by the Grease, Mission Impossible and The Godfather movies.

In Adventure City guests will find one of the E-Ticket attraction of the park, Mission Impossible 3D , in which visitors will be immersed in an espionage adventure moving across highways, flying over rooftops and through multiple zones with flames, explosions and 3D action. The attraction technology will be similar to the Spiderman ride at Universal parks, with a similar ride vehicle adapted with the improvements which have occurred in recent years on this type of attraction. The Paramount team is the one who has completely designed the storyboard of the attraction .

Unfortunately one of the attraction announced previously, dedicated to the Titanic has been cancelled, it was a kind of walk through museum ( see rendering below ) and they thought it was not attractive enough. It is replaced by a second attraction based on the Mission Impossible saga. This new attraction will use new technologies allowing visitors to interact with their smartphones and participate in the "impossible missions" in which they will be involved.

Another attraction found in this area will be "Greased Lightnin 'Bumper Cars"  a bumper cars for adults and will be set in a gas station of the 50's with colored lights to remember the atmosphere of the Grease movie.

Adventure City will also include two restaurants, the first being the Osteria Corleone, the famous restaurant of The Godfather trilogy and it will have a terrace overlooking the lake. The second themed restaurant is inspired by Grease, and will recreate a typical American restaurant.

Let's move to the next land: Rango's West, and this one seems to be the "Frontierland" of the park, but a funny one: "The Far-West will be the main character of this world within the Paramount park with a combination of performances, shops, rides and restaurants".

A Western land in theme parks is a classic but Paramount wanted to give a twist and have a different West, and here it will be designed as a small village in the American West with everyday elements of our lives like barrels, bottles, jars, etc... that have been transformed by insects in their homes and buildings. This way the visitor will have the feeling to be reduced at the size of a bug and will be constantly surprised to see everyday objects under a different light. A kind of western "Toy Story Land" or "Bug's Land", if i can say...

Rango's West will be the largest area of the park and the first major attraction that guests will find is "Spirit of the West ," a mine train which so far looks like a standard mine train coaster from Vekoma, but it seems that no deal is signed yet with a manufacturer. Mine trains are often very popular with families attractions, and hopefully it will not be finally the standard model from Vekoma but something new.

Continuing along the main street of this western village guests will find " Rango's Rootin Tootin 4D Spectacular ", a 4-D theater movie. Rango the sheriff will be the main character in "How the West Was Sung", an attraction in which visitors will help the character to restore order in the city. The 4D scenes will bring the guests to a world filled with legendary characters from the Paramount western movies.  

In the back of Rango's West guests will find the second major attraction of the land "Rango's Ragin' Rapids" a fast raft ride through the Wild West of Rango during which they shall overcome all the obstacles they will find on their way, unless they want to be completely wet at the end of it! The project include to have the mine train sometime crossing over the rapids, but it's not sure yet as it will depends of the feasibility and safety for the guests.

On the island created in the center of the rapids guests will find a small playground, " Oasis Play Zone", including water games, kids free fall  "Jumpin ' Beans" and what appears to be a path to the back of a horse, as well as slides and other attractions.

Let's move to the next land "The Enchanted Forest" which, just like Rango's West uses some not very successful or well-known franchises but with interesting premises to an area dedicated to magic and fantasy.

The area is divided into three distinct areas: Sleepy Hollow will be the first one and is inspired by the popular tale and the Tim Burton movie in which Johnny Depp was playing. Just like in the Tim Burton movie Sleepy Hollow will be a grim but fanciful place that will reflect the atmosphere of mystery and terror of the film. Upon entering guests will see the dead tree with the unmistakable Tim Burton style beside which they will find the 3D Sleepy Hollow show and it seems that projections effects will be mixed with real actors.

Stormhold is Enchanted Forest's second area with the village of Stormhold, a village from an alternate world where magic reigns, especially witches,  and is inspired from the Stardust movie, a not well known but good fantasy adventure movie that leads to the creation of an land dedicated to wizards and witches that kids love so much. The first thing that guests will encounter is a Carousel with fanciful characters, then the village of Stormhold, to arrive at a theater with interactive shows related to magic "Wizard Workshop".

The third area is called Spiderwick Chronicles. Leaving the town of Stormhold guests will enter what will be the forest itself, with a mythology and fantasy created for The Spiderwick Chronicles, another movie that did not had much success but with a story that focus on a happy forest full of magical creatures from fairies to evil ogres and other characters, a magical world created for the film which is now coming to the theme park. Among the attractions that appeared in the recreation showcase is a children's roller coaster set in mythological beings " Griffen Flyer", a large hedge maze, a small children's theater and a boat ride through a magical world filled with fairies "Fairytale journey". 

However, the major attraction of the land is "The Spiderwick Chronicles: Magical Mayhem", an interactive dark ride where visitors armed with magic wands will enter the enchanted forest and kill the ogre who wants to destroy the magical world. Nearby guests will find the Spiderwick mansion family that appears in the movie. 

Note that a hotel will be located in this area, which will also have a decorative effect as its theming will be based on magic. This hotel will have a direct access to the park from this area. According to the creatives guys, they wanted to play a lot in this area with water and vegetation, as Murcia 's climate is often warm, to cool the atmosphere. The land will be, according to them, the crown jewel, due to its landscaping and theming.

Let's move to "Plaza Futura", the "Tomorrowland" of this Paramount Park with exciting new 3D renderings!

Plaza Futura "will be dedicated to science fiction and to that uncertain future that many movies have described, with thrilling outer space adventures".

Like Adventure City, Plaza Futura will enjoy a very strong franchise - Star Trek - able to attract worldwide fans of the Star Trek movies. Plaza Futura is designed as a large retro -futuristic square in which guests will find the first attraction based on Star Trek, Starfleet Spain recruiting center, a 3D simulator ride that will be set in a recruitment center in which guests will live adventures in outer space.

According to the description, the next attraction will be a big roller coaster in which visitors will ride aboard spectacular trains equipped for all kinds of emotions. "Warp Speed ​​Coaster" will go up to 30 meters high, with a top speed of more than 100 km/h and will be 650 meters long with loops and even an underground section.

Guests will also find a set in the War of the Worlds restaurant but ultimately they didn't found an idea to turn it into an attraction so it will be used only as a decor. On the other hand the indoor Spinning coaster is cancelled so the park will open with 3 roller coasters, children, family and adult coasters.

As i told you the whole project include much more than the theme park and spanish Premursa company released a PDF file - from which the artwork above is coming - that you can download HERE. As to know when this exciting paramount Park will open, the works seems to be already underway and the park has a budget of 390 million euros. Premursa covers 100M with its capital and banks are financing about 130 or 140 millions. The park should be finished for an opening scheduled in late 2015 - early 2016!

Before ending this article i'd like to thanks the spanish Themeparkzone website who provided some of the precious  infos you've read in this article. They surely will have fresh infos about the Paramount park in the future so make sure to follow Themeparkzone! Below, a short video shot at the Premursa booth inside the Fitur International Tourism Fair at the end of January where guests could see model and 3D presentation.




Pictures: copyright Premursa - Paramount Parks