Sat 11/21/2009
Rome Unveils Theme-Park Plans
Italy, with it's
Cornucopia, it's Bonanza of Historical , Cultural, and Esthetic Marvels,
does not seem to need a "Manufactured" Attraction in the form of an Amusement
Park, but if that's what it's going to attract "low brow" foreign tourists,
I guess we have to capitulate. Damn Shame.
Rome Unveils Theme-Park Plans
Ferretti in charge of $800 million development
By Nick Vivarelli; November 20, 2009
ROME -- Rome's Cinecitta Ent. and the Eternal City's mayor, Gianni Alemanno, have unveiled an $800 million movie theme park based on classic titles, including 'Ben-Hur' and Federico Fellini's films, which built the fame of Cinecitta Studios, known in its heyday as Hollywood on the Tiber.
Two-time Oscar-winning production designer Dante Ferretti ('The Aviator') has been put in charge of the artwork for the ambitious Rome tourist attraction, modelled in part on Hollywood's Universal Studios park.
Work on the long-gestating Cinecitta World will start next year, with the first date of its planned multi-step opening set for spring 2011, and 2014 set as the final completion target.
It will be a thrilling voyage through the movies that made Cinecitta great,'Ferretti enthused at a packed presser, adding that the aim is to appeal to all generations, not just older cinephiles.
While organizers are keeping mum about specifics of the Cinecitta theme park's attractions, it emerged that one ride will feature the huge slide that Marcello Mastroianni travels down as his sexual history flashes by in Fellini's 'City of Women' on which Ferretti was the set designer.
Alemanno said Cinecitta World will aim to fill the gap that the Eternal City suffers in terms of attracting tourists, compared with Paris and London.
'Theme parks are a global phenomenon
that prompts hundreds of thousands of people to travel; but Italy, and
Rome in particular, has been terribly behind in this sector,' he lamented.
The park's goal is to attract an
average of four million visitors per year, said Emmanuel Gout, the former
Canal Plus exec who is Cinecitta World's topper.
Cinecitta World will be located in
a 400-acre area in Castel Romano south of Rome, partly on the backlot of
the former Dino De Laurentiis studio complex known as Dino Studios, which
Cinecitta now owns.
Established after the 1997 privatization
of Cinecitta, Cinecitta Ent. is 80% held by Italian Ent. Group whose partners
include producer Aurelio De Laurentiis and fashion entrepreneur Diego Della
Valle. Italian insurance giant Gruppo Generali holds the remaining 20%
stake.
As previously announced, plans are
also underway for a smaller more kiddie-conceived Rome theme park, the
$450 million MagicLand, based on Italy's Rainbow Studios? global Winx fairies
franchise and other Rainbow properties, also with a 2011 target opening
date.
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