Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
On Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey – the marquee attraction of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – guests will journey through iconic locations straight from the films, such as the Room of Requirement. This amazingly detailed scene is where guests board the groundbreaking ride and are drawn into the excitement and chaos of Harry’s life. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – the only place in the world where the stories of Harry Potter will come to life – grand opening on June 18.

It seems like Universal can’t keep anything a secret anymore.  Even if the announcement is only a day away.  First the “tent pole” ride for the Harry Potter area had most of the information for it uncovered through patents filings, Kuka robotics contracts, or just actors talking about filming their 3D scenes for the ride.  Then a few days before the Super Bowl, their commercial somehow leaked to the internet a few days early.  Maybe this is Universal’s new advertising style?  Make a big deal about the announcement, and then leak the information early so everyone gets excited?  hmmm  That is the “grand opening date”, I’ m sure we can expect to see a soft opening start to happen in early June.

The official announcement will be made on Thursday, March 25th at 12:00pm eastern time.  Expect to see the original leaked page back online at www.UniversalOrlando.com/HarryPotter

If you didn’t see the behind the scenes look video posted last month, click here.

In recent weeks, Six Flags had proposed a new lease arrangement to the fair board that would have enhanced the viability and future of the park. Unfortunately, those proposals were not accepted and the park will cease operations and the company will move expeditiously to re-locate employees and several of the more than 40 rides and attractions to one of its 13 other markets.

In an interesting contrast with Six Flags’ statement, this article claims that all rides are property of the Kentucky Fair Board.  Harold Workman, president of the Ky Fair Board said that the removal of the Chang roller coaster in September of last year was approved by him after Six Flags presented him plans to expand the water park by removing Chang.  With the way the contracted is worded, the Chang roller coaster could have belonged to the Fair Board, since the ride was affixed to the ground.  He also claims that Six Flags proposed a deal to pay no rent for the remainder  of the nine year lease in exchange for some sort of profit-sharing deal.

update Feb. 10, 2010

The current rumor is that Compagnie des Alpes is in talks with the Kentucky State Fairgrounds about running the Kentucky Kingdom property.  CdA runs several theme parks in Europe including the Parc Asterix, Walibi parks, Bellewaerde, and Hellendoorn.  If the deal goes through, Kentucky Kingdom would be their first park in North America.

I think they could have done a better job for a commercial that is going to cost them $2.5 billion to show during the Super Bowl.  At this point I’m sure they’re going for just more of an “oh I’m excited to see a commercial for it” factor than trying to compete with the usual creative commercials seen during the game.  I did however like the split second view of the coaster train on the dragon’s fire.

Best Picture

“Avatar,” “The Blind Side,” “District 9,” “An Education,” “The Hurt Locker,” “Inglourious Basterds,” “Precious: Based on the Novel ’Push’ by Sapphire,” “A Serious Man,” “Up,” “Up in the Air.”

Actor

Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”; George Clooney, “Up in the Air”; Colin Firth, “A Single Man”; Morgan Freeman, “Invictus”; Jeremy Renner, “The Hurt Locker.”

Actress

Sandra Bullock, “The Blind Side”; Helen Mirren, “The Last Station”; Carey Mulligan, “An Education”; Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”; Meryl Streep, “Julie & Julia.”

Supporting Actor

Matt Damon, “Invictus”; Woody Harrelson, “The Messenger”; Christopher Plummer, “The Last Station”; Stanley Tucci, “The Lovely Bones”; Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds.”

Supporting Actress

Penelope Cruz, “Nine”; Vera Farmiga, “Up in the Air”; Maggie Gyllenhaal, “Crazy Heart”; Anna Kendrick, “Up in the Air”; Mo’Nique, “Precious: Based on the Novel ’Push’ by Sapphire.”

Directing

James Cameron, “Avatar”; Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”; Quentin Tarantino, “Inglourious Basterds”; Lee Daniels, “Precious: Based on the Novel ’Push’ by Sapphire”; Jason Reitman, “Up in the Air.”

Foreign Language Film

“Ajami,” Israel; “El Secreto de Sus Ojos,” Argentina; “The Milk of Sorrow,” Peru; “Un Prophete,” France; “The White Ribbon,” Germany.

Adapted Screenplay

Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, “District 9”; Nick Hornby, “An Education”; Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche, “In the Loop”; Geoffrey Fletcher, “Precious: Based on the Novel ’Push’ by Sapphire”; Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, “Up in the Air.”

Original Screenplay

Mark Boal, “The Hurt Locker”; Quentin Tarantino, “Inglourious Basterds”; Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman, “The Messenger”; Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, “A Serious Man”; Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Tom McCarthy, “Up.”

For a full list and to view the nominations by category and by film, head over to oscar.go.com/nominations/nominees

So just to recap, Avatar and Hurt Locker lead the pack with 9 nominations each, coming in next is Inglourious Bastards with 8.  Rounding out the top is Up in the Air and Precious with 6, and Pixar’s Up with 5.

Tune into ABC, Sunday March 7th at 8pm eastern, 5 pacific to find out who wins.

This video focuses more on the inverted, Cylon track.

This one focuses more on the sit-down, Human track.

Universal Studios Singapore is still on schedule to open summer 2010.

When asked about putting Blu-ray drives in the consoles he said:

Well I don’t know if we need to put Blu-ray in there—you’ll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories.

You can see the interview here.  Where he also talks about plans for Project Natal.

Let’s hope he wasn’t just throwing out his own thoughts on the subject, and knows for sure it’s coming.  If Microsoft wants to keep calling the Xbox 360 a media center, and not just a gaming console, Blu-ray is a must. Unfortunately I think Microsoft is a day late and a dollar short on this.  Many people have already gotten a stand alone Blu-ray player, or even sprung for a PS3 when Sony dropped the price.  I wonder how much money Microsoft could have made if they would have released an external Blu-ray player last year around the holidays.

As for me, since they have no official word on a release date for the Blu-ray add-on, Microsoft has already lost me as a potential Blu-ray customer.  I plan on buying a player in a few weeks for less than $100 when black friday hits.