Sci-Fi Storm

Universal Orlando Resort is finally telling the world some the details about the expansion everyone knew was going – the expansion of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Some of the details we basically knew, but others are a surprise – and the expansion is so big, they haven’t even revealed all the details yet, so there will be more surprises yet to come.

In advance of their “A Celebration of Harry Potter” event which starts tomorrow and goes through the weekend, Universal spilled the beans on details about the expansion, which brings the Harry Potter experience over to its other park, Universal Studios Florida, and connects the two via a ride on the Hogwarts Express. They even kicked it off with a webcast, featuring some of the stars of the movies: James Phelps (Fred Weasley), Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom), and Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood):

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Following yesterday’s announcement that the Silent Hill franchise would feature at Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights in both Hollywood and Florida, an even bigger announcement – the hugely successful The Walking Dead franchise will also be part of HHN this year!

From the press release:

AMC’S “THE WALKING DEAD” BECOMES FIRST TELEVISION SERIES FEATURED AT
BOTH UNIVERSAL ORLANDO RESORT AND UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOLLYWOOD’S
HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS EXPERIENCES

Guests Experience The Post-Apocalyptic Zombie Horror
of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” At Nation’s Best Halloween Events

ORLANDO, Fla., UNIVERSAL CITY, Ca. (July 18, 2012) — Caught in the middle of a high-intensity struggle for survival, you fight off hordes of flesh-hungry, growling “walkers,” or zombies. No place is safe as you make your way through a post-apocalyptic wasteland with horror at every turn. Will you survive?

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Popular horror game and movie series Silent Hill will get a little more real this fall, when both Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Florida adds a maze themed on the property to their Halloween Horror Nights events for 2012 – just before the latest movie installment, Silent Hill: Revelation 3D, is released nationwide on October 26th.

From the press release:
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Here is an updated video of the opening of Transformers: The Ride at Universal Studios Hollywood – with captions in case you didn’t know who some of the people were. 🙂
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The latest movie-themed attraction, Transformers: The Ride, opened this week at Universal Studios Hollywood, and it certainly looks like a wild ride! To celebrate the opening, a full red carpet event was put on, including Optimus Prime and Bumblebee walking the carpet and posing for photo ops, and a whole ceremony with the two driving in and saving the All Spark. Check out the pictures and video (provided by Universal and our friends at Inside the Magic, who described the ride as “Spiderman x1000”).

This May an all new ride at Universal Studios Hollywood will open up: Transformers: The Ride 3D, a 3D attraction themed around the Transformers movie franchise and even director Michael Bay collaborated on the original version that opened in Universal Studios Singapore.

For those that watched the Super Bowl, and stayed watching during the commercials, caught an interesting ad, that looked an awful lot like a live broadcast…
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Universal Parks & Resorts confirmed in a press conference today the hot rumor for the past week: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter will come to Hollywood – specifically the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park. Very little details was given, such as how they’d fit it in the park (and it WILL be part of the park, not a separate park) – but it would definitely include Hogwart’s castle and the Forbidden Journey ride.

Also confirmed but with even less detail given is that the existing WWOHP section at Islands of Adventure in Orlando will be expanded, as long rumored – but that’s it. Some rumors state that they will somehow connect to space becoming available in the Universal Studios park (fueled by the recent announcement that the long-standing Jaws attraction is closing) – but they are fairly far apart with lots of support buildings and access roads in between. More likely is that it will take over more of the Lost Continent area.

Update: Hypable has a live blog of the announcement.

[WARNING – some of what is below could be considered spoilers if you are planning on attending…]

As part of the Syfy Digital Press Tour, on the first night we were taken over to Universal Studios for a special “RIP Tour” of Halloween Horror Nights XX, the 20th year of Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Florida. I’ve never attended a horror-oriented event before, so had no idea what to expect and wasn’t originally planning to attend but as I heard more about it it sounded interesting.
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