[Chine] Lionsgate Entertainment World (31 juillet 2019)

Modérateur Messages : 8573 Inscription : 29/04/2010

Nouveau parc à thème développé sur les franchises de Lionsgate (The Hunger Games, Divergent, Twilight etc...).

Lionsgate Entertainement World semble rejoindre le méga projet développé depuis une bonne demi-douzaine d'années sur l'île de Hengqin pour abriter un centre d'éducation, de culture, de nouvelles technologies, de sciences, d'écologie et de divertissement ( https://www.disneycentralplaza.com/t35918-chine-hengqin-island-2014 ).

Citation :: Theme park to star ‘Hunger Games,’ ‘Twilight’

Some of Lionsgate’s most popular film franchises from “Hunger Games” to “Twilight” will be brought to life when the studio opens what it calls the world’s first vertical theme park in China this summer.

Lionsgate Entertainment World will offer several adventures including a virtual reality motorcycle ride based on “Twilight,” a maximum-security prison breakout like in “Escape Plan” and a replica of The Capitol lobby from “Hunger Games,” complete with shops where guests can fashion themselves in the film’s distinctive couture.

More than 25 rides and virtual reality experiences will pack a sleek, futuristic looking bean-shaped building that stands 10 stories high. The theme park, which will also include attractions based on films such as “Divergent,” ″Now You See Me” and “Gods of Egypt,” is scheduled to open in July on Hengqin Island located in Zhuhai, China.

“We found a way to create this theme park experience inside of one box over multiple floors,” said Jenefer Brown, senior vice president of Global Live and Location Based Entertainment at Lionsgate.

“We created experiences that are immersive, that tell stories and are organic to the brands,” she said. “It’s a mix of all the cutting-edge attractions that you’ll find in entertainment right now.”

Brown said Lionsgate decided to create its first theme park to expand their international brand into China where films like “Twilight” and “Gods of Egypt” are popular. She said the studio hopes to capitalize off Zhuhai’s emerging status as a tourist destination and its proximity to Macau, which is considered the “Las Vegas of China.” She said the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom theme park in Zhuhai has already drawn tens of millions of people.

The Santa Monica, California-based company expects to have around 1.5 million park goers this year.

“We would complement Macau,” Brown said. “The idea is to have Vegas and Orlando right next to each other and create this super tourist destination. ... People are already coming here. But we’re on the early side in terms of development on the island. It’s growing into this dedicated kind of entertainment tourist place and virtual containment vessel.”

Lionsgate Entertainment World would be the first movie-themed park on Hengqin Island. Disney has a theme resort in Shanghai, and Universal has plans for a park based on its franchises, including “Fast and the Furious,” in Beijing.

The theme park will be a part of a large destination called Novotown, a multi-phase project that includes a hotel and office towers along with retail dining and entertainment. Future phases include plans for the National Geographic Ultimate Explorer and Real Madrid interactive experiences, as well as an international school will be built offering British-based education.

Here are some of the theme park’s other features shown to The Associated Press during a recent sneak peek of the park’s design and attractions:

FLYING, AND FASHION, IN “HUNGER GAMES”

Based on the four-part film series starring Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, park goers will journey through a motion simulator 3D ride experience called The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Flight Rebel Escape. It starts on the streets before riders board a vehicle that gets picked up by a hovercraft that flies through The Capitol.

Guests will also have the opportunity to venture around the lobby area of The Capitol where they can get their hair, makeup and even nails done to look like a citizen of the “Hunger Games” films, including the look of chaperone Effie Trinket.

Restaurants will feature a “Hunger Games”-themed menu with different dishes inspired by the film’s various districts.

BIKING WITH WOLVES IN “TWILIGHT”

Guests will have a chance to spend time in Forks, the town where author Stephenie Meyer based her vampire novels before they were turned into movies.

Twilight Saga: Midnight Ride offers a chance for four to hop on a motorcycle and take a virtual ride with Jacob Black and a pack of wolves on a dirt-bike adventure through the moonlit woods while an evil creature roams the area looking for blood.

Guests will control their bike’s speed, which path it takes and see other riders during the excursion.

Twilight Saga: Bella’s Journey will be an indoor amusement ride that highlights key moments from the films including Bella Swan’s relationship with her vampire husband Edward Cullen and encountering The Volturi, the most powerful coven of vampires.

SOARING WITH THE “GODS OF EGYPT”

Gods of Egypt: Battle for Eternity will be a virtual reality roller coaster based on the 2016 film about Egyptian deities. Riders on the high-speed amusement train ride will don headsets and soar through ancient Egypt during an epic battle between good and evil.

PLOTTING AN “ESCAPE PLAN”

About 20 people work together to break out of a maximum-security prison in Escape Plan: Prison Break. The group faces a climbing challenge course and crawl through tunnels to escape to freedom.

https://www.lionsgate.com/franchises/lionsgate-entertainment-world

Citation :: Inside 'The Hunger Games' World At China's New Adult Theme Park

Hollywood film studio Lionsgate opens its first adult-oriented Asian theme park this Summer with Lionsgate Entertainment World, launching in Hengqin, Zhuhai. The studio partnered with the Thinkwell Group and Village Roadshow Theme Parks to create the stunning movie-themed vertical park over multiple floors. Lionsgate Entertainment World worked with CAVU Designwerks, Dreamcraft Attractions, Framestore and ETF on the groundbreaking technology behind the new rides.

The 240,000-square-foot indoor park will offer 25 different attractions including several of Lionsgate Films famous franchises: The Hunger Games, Twilight, Divergent, Now You See Me, Gods Of Egypt, and Escape Plan.

The most-anticipated rides will be in The Hunger Games attraction, which will include state of the art simulators and themed dining like the Capitol Club and Peeta's Bakery as well as themed shopping venues like Capitol Couture, a custom shop for the most outrageous wardrobe. The Gods of Egypt attraction will include an indoor virtual reality roller-coaster, and the Divergent Dauntless attraction will be more interactive with physical challenges on a virtual gangplank.

With an entire level devoted to The Hunger Games, visitors will be immersed in the wealthy Capitol City with a gold and marble streetscape, a themed gourmet restaurant, a bakery, and a hair salon inspired by the outrageous styles in the film.

The violent themed film features children taken by the government to fight in bloody arenas with axes and bows. Visitors can emulate their favorite heroine Katniss Everdeen in the thrilling rides without gore but with a lot more darkness and suspense than most theme parks.

Fans will undoubtedly line up for the Mockingjay Flight: Rebel Escape, ride which takes you on an ATV through 3-D projections as you flee the city and the evil peacekeepers. The ride confronts you with splashes of black tar, electrified nets, fire and genetically engineered wasps that attack around you.

The Twilight Saga attraction is the world’s first multiplayer, interactive, hyper-reality VR motorbike simulator experience. Visitors will race alongside Jacob and the Wolf Pack on a dramatic and dark adventure through the moonlit woods.

The park is located one hour from Hong Kong, part of an ambitious project called Novotown, an integrated tourism and entertainment development. It will be managed by Village Roadshow Theme Parks with backing by the Hong Kong Lai Sun Group. Future offerings at the park include a Real Madrid World with a Flying Theatre thrill-ride experience from a soccer ball’s point of view, and a Ducati themed motorcycle racing experience.

I spoke with Dave Cobb, a creative director at Los Angeles-based Thinkwell Group who helped design the project and he filled me in on what makes this attraction so unique, and what lies ahead for future adult-themed parks.

What makes this theme park so special ?

DAVE COBB: "We have created the first PG 13 theme park by design. When the client came to us, the development that they are building has multiple components to it and they specifically wanted attractions to appeal to the Chinese young adult dating crowd. The dating crowd in their 20’s and 30’s in China goes out in large groups and the brands we were looking at were of that ilk."

"Lions Gate was the perfect fit because their brands were almost exclusively young adult and leaned towards a more sophisticated sort of storytelling. The world of The Hunger Games is so much larger than the arena. When you start seeing the larger world of Panem and the heroism of the resistance and the kookiness of the fashion within the Capitol, there are lots of different ways we can immerse people in that world. When you visit the World of The Hunger Games in this park, you are actually in Panem and its that tension between the over the top elements in the Capitol with the rebellion that is fighting against it. Like any good theme park attraction, there is dramatic tension. Visitors can become part of the resistance and also part of the Capitol where you can get made over like 'Effie Trinket' with fashion and hair."

How do you impress the most jaded audience ?

DAVE COBB: “This audience in China is very tech-savvy and enjoy VR and technology and because its an indoor park specifically for this demographic, that also put us at a lower capacity level than most theme parks. The rides themselves can be more intimate and we can lean into some technologies that we would normally shy away from in theme parks. You see a lot of VR experiences out there but they are very low capacity and hard to scale up for something like a large world-class theme park."

"In this park, we got to use VR in three different ways and that is enabled by the size and demographics of the audience. We get to immerse people in these incredibly lush and visual worlds and combine motion simulation and physical effects that surround you and map you into this digital world and an extension of the physical world you are interacting with on the ride. The headline VR attraction at the park is called Midnight Ride and is based on the Twilight Saga, and it’s the world’s first multi-player, interactive, hyper-reality VR simulator where you actually sit on a motorcycle and you race alongside the wolf pack on this dirt bike adventure that has complete rider freedom. It's not just a canned simulator film that is pre-rendered and is a world you can explore as you ride."

"That is a game-changer when you are talking about a theme park attraction with a fairly high capacity. We also created the first purpose-built virtual reality coaster called Gods of Egypt-Battle for Eternity. We trick the riders with the coaster layout that you actually go through twice at different speeds. That way its twice as long of an experience in only half the footprint we would normally do which was necessary for an indoor park. But its using VR to actually expand the world beyond the physical coaster that you ride.

What does the future of theme parks look like ?

DAVE COBB: "Theme parks will open up more storytelling where you are not just a passive bystander in attractions anymore. The successful attractions are not only the ones that write you into the story both emotionally and physically, but also through interaction or choices you make. That kind of interactivity is what will set future attractions apart because we are dealing with an audience that has been raised on video games."

Forbes - 24 juillet 2019.