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Universal considering UK theme park in Bedford

Matt N

Matt N

CF Legend
Tonkso said:
Surely it's just going to be the business arm in the UK for Port Ventura though?
Click to expand...
You say that, but Universal markets Orlando pretty heavily in the UK already... if it was just marketing a foreign destination, might they not already have the trademark from marketing the Orlando resort?
 
Matt N

Matt N

CF Legend
For what it's worth... folks on Inside Universal are now saying that NBCUniversal has registered the web domain names UniversalStudiosGreatBritain and UniversalStudiosBritain.

It should also be noted that they have only registered domain names of this format for Britain... other European countries such as France and Germany are still available.
 
Nicky Borrill

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
Matt N said:
For what it's worth... folks on Inside Universal are now saying that NBCUniversal has registered the web domain names UniversalStudiosGreatBritain and UniversalStudiosBritain.

It should also be noted that they have only registered domain names of this format for Britain... other European countries such as France and Germany are still available.
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You don't need to be on the inside to look this up. A simple whois search shows this to (potentially) be true.

Those domains were registered by Markmonitor, who also look after nbcuni.com !!! The domains also point to nbcuni.com name servers.

They were registered in September of this year, the 22nd to be precise.

Whilst not 100% proof, somebody could have used all the right info to set these domains up as part of an elaborate hoax... Everything does seem to check out, and it certainly does look promising... Especially considering these were set up back in September, before most goons would have heard the rumour and had chance to feed it with a hilarious hoax.

www.whois.com

Whois universalstudiosgreatbritain.com

Whois Lookup for universalstudiosgreatbritain.com
www.whois.com www.whois.com

www.whois.com

Whois universalstudiosbritain.com

Whois Lookup for universalstudiosbritain.com
www.whois.com www.whois.com

Thanks for sharing Matt :)
 
Matt N

Matt N

CF Legend
Nicky Borrill said:
You don't need to be on the inside to look this up. A simple whois search shows this to (potentially) be true.

Those domains were registered by Markmonitor, who also look after nbcuni.com !!! The domains also point to nbcuni.com name servers.

They were registered in September of this year, the 22nd to be precise.

Whilst not 100% proof, somebody could have used all the right info to set these domains up as part of an elaborate hoax... Everything does seem to check out, and it certainly does look promising... Especially considering these were set up back in September, before most goons would have heard the rumour and had chance to feed it with a hilarious hoax.

www.whois.com

Whois universalstudiosgreatbritain.com

Whois Lookup for universalstudiosgreatbritain.com
www.whois.com www.whois.com

www.whois.com

Whois universalstudiosbritain.com

Whois Lookup for universalstudiosbritain.com
www.whois.com www.whois.com

Thanks for sharing Matt :)
Click to expand...
No problem at all!

I thought it was an interesting piece of ammunition that lends a little more weight to the rumours… yes, it’s not that hard to set up a domain name, but seeing as NBCUniversal are listed as the domain owner, I’d imagine that it is official. And them setting up a domain name does indicate that they are at very least seriously considering a British Universal park, in my view.
 
Howie

Howie

Donkey in a hat
I'm a proper Universal fan boy and would dearly love for this to come to fruition... but, hmm, I dunno... I'm not convinced just yet. If I was a Universal boss, I'd take one look at the decade-long London Resort fiasco and be like "Nah man, sod that, can't get anything built in the UK, they're bloody useless".
I mean... wouldn't you?
 
spicy

spicy

Giga Poster
The thought of a UK Universal park is incredibly exciting.

And surely from a business perspective it would make complete sense.

Put in a smaller park like the one in Singapore but with a Potter land and it will generate an absolute fortune on Potter merchandise.
 
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Howie

Howie

Donkey in a hat
spicy said:
Put in a smaller park like the one in Singapore but with a Potter land and it will generate an absolute fortune on Potter merchandise.
Click to expand...

Given that the Harry Potter Studio Tour already exists, does anyone think that some sort of deal/collaboration/merger/takeover/rebrand/whatever is possible there? Isn't that kinda where Universal Studios Theme Parks originated from anyway? Turning an actual movie studio into a themed attraction and adding rides and stuff?
Not sure how much space they have down there at the Studio Tour, but when I went I certainly noticed a couple of vacant fields next door.
That'd be quite cool though wouldn't it? Keep the Studio Tour as is, but add a Hagrid's and a Forbidden Journey and Boom!:
"Universal's Harry Potter Studios, London".

If I'm talking bollocks again and that is a definite no-go, would the existence of the current Harry Potter Studio Tour be a potential obstacle in the development of another Potterland somewhere else in the UK?
I dunno. Just thinking aloud, I guess. Thoughts?
 
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Tonkso

Tonkso

Hyper Poster
Never there, whilst it being a working studio wouldn't be a problem, that's how the other parks work after all, it IS in a residential area. It's also a very traffic-sensitive area which physically could not support a Theme Park. Not just the roads which are genuinely horrendously congested, but the stretch of West Coast Mainline that would serve it is exactly the bit of railway HS2 is supposed to relieve capacity on, it's full to bursting point.
 
Nicky Borrill

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
Howie said:
I'm a proper Universal fan boy and would dearly love for this to come to fruition... but, hmm, I dunno... I'm not convinced just yet. If I was a Universal boss, I'd take one look at the decade-long London Resort fiasco and be like "Nah man, sod that, can't get anything built in the UK, they're bloody useless".
I mean... wouldn't you?
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If this project is as far into the planning stages as it seems to be (beyond land acquisition!) Then you can be sure that the UK government has already put a very tasty package of support on the table. Otherwise Universal wouldn’t be touching the UK with a ten foot barge pool, after last time. (See the video I posted above.)
 
gavin

gavin

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
Howie said:
Given that the Harry Potter Studio Tour already exists, does anyone think that some sort of deal/collaboration/merger/takeover/rebrand/whatever is possible there? Isn't that kinda where Universal Studios Theme Parks originated from anyway? Turning an actual movie studio into a themed attraction and adding rides and stuff?
Not sure how much space they have down there at the Studio Tour, but when I went I certainly noticed a couple of vacant fields next door.
That'd be quite cool though wouldn't it? Keep the Studio Tour as is, but add a Hagrid's and a Forbidden Journey and Boom!:
"Universal's Harry Potter Studios, London".

If I'm talking bollocks again and that is a definite no-go, would the existence of the current Harry Potter Studio Tour be a potential obstacle in the development of another Potterland somewhere else in the UK?
I dunno. Just thinking aloud, I guess. Thoughts?
Click to expand...
The Harry Potter tour in the UK has nothing to do with Universal though. Universal licensed it from Warner Brothers for their parks, so I'm not sure how it would work in the UK given that Warner Brothers are running their own attraction. I think it would be more of an obstacle than anything.
 
spicy

spicy

Giga Poster
roomraider said:
Japan has both a universal park potter land and a making of WB potter experience so I suppose it's possible.
Click to expand...

As room raider pointed out here both exist together in the same country in Japan so no reason why it would be a problem in the UK?

Warner Brothers may actually be encouraging Universal to build a UK Potter land as may generate even more from the licensing agreement?

Keeps their franchise alive too. Although shows no signs of slowing almost 13 years since the last movie was released.
 
Nicky Borrill

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
spicy said:
As room raider pointed out here both exist together in the same country in Japan so no reason why it would be a problem in the UK?

Warner Brothers may actually be encouraging Universal to build a UK Potter land as may generate even more from the licensing agreement?

Keeps their franchise alive too. Although shows no signs of slowing almost 13 years since the last movie was released.
Click to expand...
It's only going to increase I would think, with the reboot coming... Love her or hate her, she created an incredible universe and wrote some fantastic stories, imagine what they're going to do with those stories with the kind of budget the reboot will have, and the extra time a series will allow, to include more from the books and possible even build more on top.*

*This 'could' also be a poison chalice if they drag the stories out too much.
 
J

Jamesss

Hyper Poster
I know it's all strongly in rumour territory but a Universal park would be such a game-changing moment for the UK industry. Just imagine it.

A Harry Potter land that's actually in Britain with authentic British weather and British-ness would be a money printer. I'd hope they do a unique expanded version of it rather than a copy & paste of the other ones.
 
Nicky Borrill

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
I hinted at it earlier, but the UK government HAS to be all over this, doing everything in their power to make it happen, throwing whatever money they can at it.

Harry Potter probably accounts for a huge chunk of the international tourism to the UK as it is, this would be some serious 'levelling up' on that front.
 
gavin

gavin

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
spicy said:
As room raider pointed out here both exist together in the same country in Japan so no reason why it would be a problem in the UK?

Warner Brothers may actually be encouraging Universal to build a UK Potter land as may generate even more from the licensing agreement?

Keeps their franchise alive too. Although shows no signs of slowing almost 13 years since the last movie was released.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but I was responding to the idea of "adding a Hagrid's" etc. to the existing UK attraction. That's just not feasible given that Universal have literally nothing to do with it. If the WB tour wanted to add rides (no indication in the slightest that they want to go down that route), why would they want to involve Universal and dilute potential profits when they could build something themselves?

Yeah, Japan has both, but in completely different cities. Tokyo to Osaka is roughly the same distance between London and Edinburgh. Sure, Japan has better transportation between the two cities, but there's still much less competition than if they were in the same city. There's a reason that Tokyo has Disney and Osaka has Universal; they're catering to a different catchment area entirely.
 
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