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By: Lizzy Burns,
on 4/21/2007
Gawker offers up an analysis of some non-blogger book reviews: Plot Summaries Rampant in the NYTBR: Are the Nice People Even Trying?
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 4/21/2007
The battle over who gets to build the Harry Potter theme park has been raging, and Universal was the winner, defeating Disney. However, Disney Watcher Jim Hill explains that due to J.K. Rowling’s stringent demands, Disney may be just as glad.
So how’s about instead that I say that Ms. Rowling was reported to be very protective of her characters. More to the point, that she supposedly had some very definite ideas about what a theme park version of Harry Potter’s world should look like.
How so? Well, according to the folks that I’ve spoken with who worked on the Disney version of this project … J.K. allegedly wanted each & every guest who was experiencing the theme park version of Harry Potter’s world to do so by first entering the Leaky Cauldron pub. Where — by tapping on just the right brick (”Three up and two across … “) — they’d then gain access to Diagon Alley, that odd collection of Wizards-only shops & restaurants that’s hidden away in the heart of London.
Copyright 2001 Warner Bros.
From this area (Which was — at least in the stand-alone version of the proposed “Harry Potter” theme park — supposed to have been the equivalent of Main Street U.S.A. at Disneyland. As in: That area that established the style & the tone of the theme park to follow. More importantly, Diagon Alley would have been where most of the guests purchased their souvenirs before exiting the park that night), these folks were then supposed to have made their way to Platform 9 & 3/4 at King’s Cross Station. Where — after magically piercing the barrier that separates the Muggle world from the Wizard world — guests would have then been able to board a full-sized version of the Hogwarts Express for a trip to Harry’s alma mater.
Which admittedly (on paper, anyway) sounds wonderful. But to the folks who actually run the Parks & Resorts side of things at the Walt Disney Company, what Rowling was reportedly asking for sounded unfeasible.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 4/6/2007
I’ve got the coat! Let’s start a super-team!
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 2/28/2007
While we don’t expect anyone to dive into the Legendary Rick Olney thread at CBR, Graeme has a mini round-up, but even BETTER, Olney himself has waded right into it, by YET AGAIN ANNOUNCING A CONVENTION (one of his most notorious maneuvers is cancelling cons at the last minute), and swearing he has a venue, although he hasn’t announced it yet. But he does so have a venue.
Anyway, this is the last public post on this matter by me. We do have a venue for the June 23rd & 24th Mighty MiniCon event. We hope you’ll bother to come check us out!
The next Mighty MiniCon is June 23rd & 24th in upstate New York. As stated, details will be released shortly here.
Any vendor previously discouraged or having any feelings of regret from 2004-2005 are encouraged and invited to contact me to resolve their concerns.
In closing, TightLip Entertainment welcomes any interest from certified vendors, potential guests, and any small press or indy publishing entity interested in our next event.
Markosia Entertainment today confirmed that as a company, they would not be attending June’s Mighty Mini Con, run by TightLip Entertainment.
“We’ve been told that we were mentioned as guests,” Tony Lee, Group Editor for Markosia said. “But the text going around the net currently is from last year and was asked to be taken down by Chuck Satterlee, our Director of Operations. We will not be at MMC.” The text has consequently been removed.
Markosia apologizes to their fans but stresses that they will be back in the US in 2007 at a variety of conventions across America.
“Individual creators may still attend the Mighty Mini Con or any other event, of course. However, Markosia will not have a presence, no matter what you have heard,” finished Lee.
For more information on what conventions Markosia will be attending, go to www.markosia.com.
A message to all my friends and readers…
If you are approached by an individual named Rick Olney or a representative of this man, if you are approached by Olney or anyone else representing entities known as The Mighty Mini-Con, TightLip Entertainment, or ORCA, I strongly urge you to run in the other direction. You can find more details here:
http://www.unscrewedcomic.com/
Please, if you trust me, do not attempt to do business with Olney. In fact, please pass along this warning to any comics professionals, aspiring comics professionals, retailers, exhibitors, media guests, and fans you know.
Olney is not someone you want to do business with.
I’d hoped not to involve myself in this in such a public manner, but, with Olney again advertising a convention and claiming that he is still planning to publish comic books, the greater good demands I speak out.
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[…] Then, this morning I find this article about a Harry Potter Theme Park. I suppose with the last book out this summer and only two movies after the one this year, they’ll have to keep people interested in Harry Potter somehow. It sounds like Rowling is so concerned about the individual guest experience that she’s ignoring what it would mean for 100+ people to show up at the Theme Park at once. Fanatics will love that she stays true, the rest of us will just get annoyed and leave. […]
Perhaps it could have been infeasible too.
I’m going to boycott this like a bad habit. Especially if they’re going to planning to build this in my backyard - which is the SF Valley.
~
Coat