Universal Great Britain

[rob@rar]

Excellent! I know one of the journalists on that story, he doesn’t make up stuff for click bait headlines and would only write about Universal if he had a good source (which I’m pretty sure he does).

Progress continues…

 

[yepthatguy]

Progress of Universal theme park could pause Wixams station development - Bedford Independent

A senior borough councillor officer said there could be a “hiatus” on the construction of Wixams station if a new design has to be drawn...

www.bedfordindependent.co.uk

All seems a bit “disjointed”.

 

[rob@rar]

All seems a bit “disjointed”.

Yes, all a bit unfortunate given how much money is being spent which potentially will need to be undone. But Bedford Council were up against a hard deadline to approve and start the project because a large chunk of the money (for the 2-platform station) is coming from the local property developer. By law that money needed to be spent in a certain timeframe, otherwise the property developer was no longer required to provide what is called S.106 money to the local council. It's a shame that Universal's proposal didn't come along so the timeframes matched, but in the long run I think the residents of Wixams will benefit as they will get a more comprehensive train service running later in the day and perhaps more frequently (and a world class theme park on their doorstep).

 

[rob@rar]

As reported by Jamie Finn on one of the Facebook groups, one of the Bloomberg journalists has tweeted that the Universal project is not due to feature in the Chancellor’s speech later this month, but is due to get internal sign-off by the government. I guess this will allow them to move to the next stage of the process (which I think will include public and statutory consultations on the planning proposals), before codifying it all in the Special Development Order in Parliament.

 

[bedfordmassive]

As reported by Jamie Finn on one of the Facebook groups, one of the Bloomberg journalists has tweeted that the Universal project is not due to feature in the Chancellor’s speech later this month, but is due to get internal sign-off by the government. I guess this will allow them to move to the next stage of the process (which I think will include public and statutory consultations on the planning proposals), before codifying it all in the Special Development Order in Parliament.

Can't find the tweet - did it say anything else?

 

[rob@rar]

Can't find the tweet - did it say anything else?

 

[yepthatguy]

Pretty much what @bedfordmassive said from the article he found.

Is Bedford's Universal theme park about to be given the green light? - Bedford Independent

Rumours that the government will use a speech by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to give the green light to Bedford's Universal Studios...

www.bedfordindependent.co.uk

Also I didn’t really expect the government to announce it, I always thought it would be Universal to really confirm the go ahead.

 

[JoeMcSqueezy]

So seemingly after this will be another Public Consultation, but will it be any different than the first one?

 

[Luke Hutchinson]

So seemingly after this will be another Public Consultation, but will it be any different than the first one?

Yes, This one is held in conjunction with the government though I believe… I think you can find information for the HS2 consultation online

 

[Milo Davis]

Way too early to be speculating, but if Dark universe is a hit I could see a version of it being copied over to the UK. I feel like it would fit the vibe well, and sort of fill a hole left by no Harry Potter.

 

[rob@rar]

So seemingly after this will be another Public Consultation, but will it be any different than the first one?

The first consultation was run by Universal itself and was a good PR exercise in that it showed those who responded were overwhelmingly supportive on Universal building a theme park in Bedford. But that consultation wasn't independent and wasn't based on detailed proposals or a formal planning application, so I don't think it carries much weight in the current process.

I'm unclear whether it will be a traditional public consultation in which everyone is able to comment on the proposals, as you would normally see in a large scale planning process. The use of a Special Development Order to approve the planning application means that this entire process falls outside of all the normal structures for planning applications. I think that the government will have to meet the requirements of the the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017, which include the requirement to invite representations from specific statutory bodies like Natural England, local authorities, services and utilities, who have a legitimate interest in the environmental impact assessment of this major development. We know, for example, that Bedford Council is expecting to respond to the government as it's been on their decision making framework for months. I don't think for one moment that any of the likely responses to this environmental impact assessment will throw a spanner in the works, it's just a part of the process that needs to be completed as the planning application moves closer to final; approval. Hopefully all this will happen relatively quickly and the Special Development Order can be tabled in Parliament in the near future, allowing Universal to begin major groundworks as soon as they want.

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

Way too early to be speculating, but if Dark universe is a hit I could see a version of it being copied over to the UK. I feel like it would fit the vibe well, and sort of fill a hole left by no Harry Potter.

Again, it’s early, but the biggest rumor is nothing from Orlando is coming to USGB. Seems like a company mandate.

 

[rob@rar]

Again, it’s early, but the biggest rumor is nothing from Orlando is coming to USGB. Seems like a company mandate.

I think the rumour said no duplicate rides or attractions? That wouldn't preclude broad similarities in the IP used for different lands in the park, just that there would be no identical rides. I'd guess there's going to be a Jurassic Park/World land in USGB, but there won't be a VelociCoaster or JP River Adventure. If they get the rights to Harry Potter perhaps there will be a land based on the Wizarding World (New York?) but no Forbidden Journey, Escape from Gringotts, Hagrid's or London Ministry rides. I'm most looking forward to Dark Universe at Epic, so I'd be delighted to see that form a land in USGB, with some unique rides and attractions not found in Orlando.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

Potter has been somewhat speculated at past to be potentially MIA as a result of the WB Studio Tour, and how that could force them to not look into using that IP for the sake of a UK park (atleast from my past experiences on other areas).

 

[Lost Meerkat]

I passed up Manor Road today and saw a couple of cars on site, and this video just posted by Wandering Northerner.

 

[TheUniC6]

Potter has been somewhat speculated at past to be potentially MIA as a result of the WB Studio Tour, and how that could force them to not look into using that IP for the sake of a UK park (atleast from my past experiences on other areas).

IIRC wasn't DreamWorks off limits as well?

 

[BBPH]

IIRC wasn't DreamWorks off limits as well?

DreamWorks isn’t necessarily off limits. The IP is used by Merlin at Shrek’s Adventure (under the DreamWorks Tours branding).

As far as I know, the licensing deal was set to expire this year but has been renewed. There was also an application for capex tied to the renewal.

Internally at Merlin, I believe the options for the deal were generally viewed as:

1. Renew with exclusivity and proceed with a major refurbishment.

2. Renew without exclusivity and continue operations as-is.

DreamWorks was reportedly in favour of the capex project, given the attraction is in a rough condition.

I don’t know how the negotiations ultimately turned out. If capex was part of the agreement, a likely time for shutdown and refurbishment would have been January—but that hasn’t happened.

 

[TheUniC6]

DreamWorks isn’t necessarily off limits. The IP is used by Merlin at Shrek’s Adventure (under the DreamWorks Tours branding).

As far as I know, the licensing deal was set to expire this year but has been renewed. There was also an application for capex tied to the renewal.

Internally at Merlin, I believe the options for the deal were generally viewed as:

1. Renew with exclusivity and proceed with a major refurbishment.

2. Renew without exclusivity and continue operations as-is.

DreamWorks was reportedly in favour of the capex project, given the attraction is in a rough condition.

I don’t know how the negotiations ultimately turned out. If capex was part of the agreement, a likely time for shutdown and refurbishment would have been January—but that hasn’t happened.

So at the very least Shrek could be off limits for use at UGB, but it seems some sort of DW catch all area minus the ogre could work. But if something fell through and all of DW is fair game at UGB, bring on a fully fledged Shrek land that does the IP justice.

So far the IPs I predict being used at UGB at the top of my head would probably follow something like this:

Illumination and Despicable Me

Some sort of catch all Dreamworks land whether it be catch all like USF's or a single IP like Shrek.

Whatever iteration of the Jurassic franchise is ongoing by the time of UGBs development

 

[MangoDance]

So far the IPs I predict being used at UGB at the top of my head would probably follow something like this:

Illumination and Despicable Me

Some sort of catch all Dreamworks land whether it be catch all like USF's or a single IP like Shrek.

Whatever iteration of the Jurassic franchise is ongoing by the time of UGBs development

If I was a betting person I'd wager towards:

• Lord of the Rings - major area + attractions
• Wicked - major area + attractions + show
• Minions - major area + attractions
• Horror (Blumhouse, IT) - major area + attractions + HHN
• Jurassic Rebirth - minor area + attraction
• Paddington - minor play area, flat-rides

The other area that could be very effective is digging into their older IPs, in the UK we still adore back to the future, a lot of merchandise etc, so maybe dust that IP off and give it a ride it deserves, "Back to the Future: Temporal Loop" dark coaster or something.

Honestly, the more I think about it, the less I'm worried If they can't do Shrek or Harry Potter.

Oh, and the monkey paw ride none of us want but we'll probably get instead of BTTF, Fast & Furious: London Pursuit!

Well that was a fun thought exercise, now back to waiting for some actual news...

 

[JoeMcSqueezy]

IK that Theme Parks have a limited number of lands and all the talk of new stuff in this Park may have made people dismiss it a bit, but I’m surprised to not see a new Nintendo area mentioned a lot given just how much of a success it’s been for Universal everywhere, and there’s a lot you could still do with even just the Marioverse