by Stone Marshall | Dec 13, 2015 | Awesome Book News |
West Coast Potterheads, the day you’ve been waiting for has finally arrived. Or rather: the day you’ve been waiting for won’t arrive for another four months, but at least we finally know when it is.
Universal Studios Hollywood has finally set a spring 2016 opening date for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park. Watch the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Hollywood opening date announcement, and get more details, after the jump.
Harry Potter movie art director Alan Gilmore and actress Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood) were on hand to reveal that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Hollywood opening date has been confirmed for April 7, 2016.
Although April 7 marks the grand opening of the new theme park, it’s likely Universal will very likely have a soft opening earlier in the year. We’ll be keeping an ear on the ground for updates on that front.
For the most part, Universal Studios Hollywood’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter shouldn’t be too different from the one at Universal Orlando Resort. One notable difference, though, will be in the ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. For the first time in the U.S., The Wizarding World of Harry Potter’s flagship ride will be in “hyper-realistic 3D-HD.” (The 3D version of the attraction first opened in Japan, but the Orlando one remains in 2D).
Universal Studios Hollywood guests will also be excited to hear that The Wizarding World of Harry Potter brings the first outdoor roller coaster to the park, Flight of the Hippogriff.
To celebrate the Wizarding World of Harry Potter opening date announcement, Universal Studios Hollywood put out a brand-new TV commercial.
The first half of this TV spot might actually do too good a job selling the fantasy. After 30 seconds spent dreamily floating among the clouds, it’s almost disappointing to come back down to earth and realize Universal Studios Hollywood’s grand solution to the tragic lack of wonder in our everyday lives is… suggesting we shell out a bunch of money to visit an amusement park.
More convincing is this previously revealed video tour, which gives you a more concrete idea of what to expect from Universal Studios Hollywood’s The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Yeah, count us in. The press release follows:
Universal City, California, December 8, 2015 – It’s official: “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™” will open at Universal Studios Hollywood on Thursday, April 7, 2016, marking the highly-anticipated arrival of the West Coast’s dynamic new immersive experience at The Entertainment Capital of L.A.
This eagerly-awaited news coincides with the launch of the destination’s spellbinding campaign, which is stylistically designed to sweep guests into the land’s magical world through the lens of imagination.
The campaign is anchored by a new television spot designed to build suspense and enthusiasm while evoking a sense of wonder and succinctly capture the magical appeal that “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” has for cross-generational consumers as it announces the April 7 opening date.
In making the exciting announcement, Universal Studios Hollywood illuminated the land’s Hogwarts castle to signal the arrival of today’s momentous news.
To see the new campaign spot including a glimpse of the new land and today’s news, please click here.
More than five years in the making, and inspired by J.K. Rowling’s compelling stories and characters that were brought to life in the Warner Bros. films, “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” is being masterfully recreated with impeccable detail as a real-world interpretation at Universal Studios Hollywood. The land will be faithful to the visual landscape of the fiction and films, including Hogwarts castle which will serve as its iconic focal point.
From its snow-capped roofs and cobblestone streets to the historic British sensibilities that characterize the whimsical look and feel of the land, “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” will transport guests of all ages to the very places they read about in the stories or watched on the silver screen.
Upon entering the land through the archway, Hogsmeade will bustle to life with the same vitality of a quaint local village: merchants hard at work, a train conductor welcoming new arrivals and a pub packed to the gills with hungry patrons, but with the added element of enthusiastic guests intent on experiencing them all, including the land’s signature ride, “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey,” and the family outdoor coaster, “Flight of the Hippogriff™.”
An achievement in pioneering theme park ride technology, “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey” will make its U.S. debut at Universal Studios Hollywood in hyper-realistic 3D-HD designed to further immerse guests in an already engaging storyline. The multidimensional thrill ride features a groundbreaking robotics ride system, fused with elaborate filmed action sequences and immersive visceral effects. In this updated adaptation of the ride, guests will sport Quidditch-inspired 3D goggles as they venture through journeys experienced by Harry and his friends, spiraling and pivoting 360-degrees along an elevated ride track on a whirlwind adventure of a lifetime.
Also within “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter,” the enchanting family coaster, “Flight of the Hippogriff™” will open as Universal Studios Hollywood’s first outdoor roller coaster.
“The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” will resonate with immense detail, inviting guests to revel in Harry Potter’s world with the opportunity to enjoy authentic food and beverage at multiple locations, including Three Broomsticks™, and Hog’s Head pub, as well as the Magic Neep and Butterbeer™ carts.
A foray through the shops will add to the authenticity of the land with eight retail venues and locations, including Honeydukes™, Ollivanders™, Owl Post™, Zonko’s™ Joke Shop, Wiseacre’s Wizarding Equipment, Dervish and Banges, Gladrags Wizardwear and Filch’s Emporium of Confiscated Goods™.
Currently, Universal Studios Hollywood in-park guests can experience and purchase authentic merchandise, including wands, robes and other collectibles from “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter,” available within the Features Presentation shop, located just inside the theme park’s main entry.
As the countdown to the April 7th opening date continues, the website invites guests to learn more by signing up for the latest news and information at www.universalstudioshollywood.com/harrypotter/signup.
Universal Studios Hollywood’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter Sets April Opening Date
by Stone Marshall | Dec 12, 2015 | Awesome Book News |
If you’re still waiting for your letter to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, then you’re in luck: we have something even better. Introducing Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy, your new favorite magic school. Come for the magic tricks, stay for the nonstop orgy of fun that is “The Magicians.”Adapted from Lev Grossman’s bestselling fantasy book series of the same name, Syfy’s “The Magicians” follows Quentin Coldwater, a twentysomething bored with his mundane life. He yearns for the same kinds of adventures found in the fantastical “Fillory and Further” book series he loves so much. You see, Quentin isn’t The Boy Who Lived as much as he’s The Boy Who Is Living (Just Barely). Surprise acceptance to a prestigious magic school, however, changes everything.
“What it takes from the books, I think, is a certain tone, the settings, most of the characters come from the books, and the general arc of the story comes from the books,” Grossman says in our exclusive video below. “But the specifics, what they do on a daily basis and how they move the arc forward, in some places, is very different from the books, which is quite exciting.”
After his Princeton grad student interview is hijacked by some elite magicians, Quentin is accepted to Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy, a secret magic school in upstate New York. If you know anything about upstate New York, then you know all there is to do is party and bulls–t, even if you practice magic. So that’s exactly what Quentin and his new friends, The Physical Kids, do.The Physical Kids — Eliot, Josh, Margo and Alice — are a group of students who study Physical Magic, and they’re the definition of #SquadGoals. They know that magic school is really effing hard, so to blow off steam, they do what most normal young people do: drink, have casual sex and get demon tattoos. Oh, and they occasionally transform themselves in arctic foxes and polar bears just for fun.
“It’s a difficult thing to adapt these books to television because a lot of it is Quentin’s journey, and what’s going on in Quentin’s head,” Olivia Taylor Dudley, who plays Alice, shares in our video above. “And now we get the chance to explore all these other beautiful characters that Lev wrote.”
It even gives the show more opportunities to explore the world of Fillory, a Narnia-esque fantasy land that is more than just the setting of Quentin’s favorite book. In fact, it’s very real — and very dangerous. (Like “Game of Thrones,” hands are severed.) That’s when he kinda becomes your atypical Hero Guy.
But every Hero Guy needs a Hero Girl, and in “The Magicians” that girl is Julia, Quentin’s best friend since childhood. After getting rejected from Brakebills, Julia practices her magic on the DL. (Unlike Hogwarts, Brakebills is an elitist establishment; it doesn’t just let any old magically inclined student through its doors.) As we watch Quentin excel at Brakebills, we will also see Julia struggling to learn magic by any means necessary in the real world.
“This is one character that I was never able to map out,” Stella Maeve, who plays Julia, says in the video. “It was one of those things where I kind of showed up and let her takeover. He looked at me and said, ’It’s so funny that you should say that because that’s exactly how I wrote her.’ He said, ’I didn’t know how to write for the twentysomething-year-old girl. But once I put the pen to the paper, she wrote herself.’”
Despite having a limited role in the first book, Julia will have a prominent presence in the series from the very first episode. MTV News has already screened the pilot episode, and trust us, it might make you want to trade in that old Gryffindor scarf for some Brakebills merch.
“The Magicians” premieres January 25, 2016 with two back-to-back episodes. But if you simply cannot wait, an early unannounced showing of the premiere will air on December 16 at 10 p.m. ET on Syfy.
‘The Magicians’ Is The Dark And Twisty ‘Harry Potter’ You’ve Always Wanted: Watch
by Stone Marshall | Dec 12, 2015 | Minecraft News |
Hello everyone!
It’s been a big year for Minecraft on Pocket Edition. Earlier this year, we announced that 30 million Minecrafters are enjoying breaking and placing blocks on mobile. But we are always looking for ways that we can make Pocket Edition better than ever, and the team has been hard at work this year making all kinds of fun things for you!
So, we’ve made a special trailer to bring you up to speed on all the things you can now do with Minecraft: Pocket Edition.
Here’s a sampling of all the spiffy things you can do in Pocket Edition now:
- Upload your own custom skin, or try one from the various packs that we’ve made!
- Ride in a boat with your doggy companion!
- Throw things at mobs from inside your boat! (So antagonistic!)
- Catch fish from inside your boat! Or from not inside your boat!
- Make your old worlds infinite in size!
- Decorate with all sorts of stone brick variants
- Collect rotten flesh dropped from slain zombies and feed it to your dog (Gross!)
- Drink milk to cure nastiness caused by enemy mobs
- Play cross-platform together with friends using the Windows 10 Edition Beta
- Gather your bravery and explore the Nether
- Tame ocelots and start your very own in-game cat ranch
- Build golems (Threatening!)
- Enhance your stuff with anvils and enchantments
- Whip up some fancy potions in Brewing Stations
- Pick up experience and manage your hunger like the true wild survivor you are
- Bunnies <3 (Careful, they will eat your crops!)
- Enhance your worlds with basic redstone-powered components
- New things to attack you! Spider Jockeys, Cave Spiders, Chicken Jockeys, and Baby Zombies
- More passive mobs – Squids in the water and bats in the cave! (Sounds like a great metal song.)
- Explore and discover the treasures and danger of Desert Temples!
Did you know that all those things are in Minecraft: Pocket Edition?
Haven’t gotten into Minecraft: Pocket Edition yet? Don’t worry! You can check it out for $6.99 or local equivalent on Windows Phone, iOS, android, and Amazon Underground.
Happy crafting!
PS – If you like the fun set pieces we used to make this new trailer and you have Pocket Edition on Android or the Windows 10 Edition Beta, you can download them and play with them for free. Have fun!
Minecraft: Pocket Edition Celebrates a Year Filled with Updates
by Stone Marshall | Dec 11, 2015 | Awesome Book News |
Two years ago, Finnish illustrator and designer Vesa Lehtimäki put out a 38-page hardcover book of photos of Lego-built scenes showing imagined scenarios on the snow planet Hoth. It was a delightful collection of pictures full of levity, depicting AT-AT Walkers kicking through fresh powder, snowtroopers on skis, and Chewbacca covered in snow. Today, Lehtimäki is back with an expanded collection of Lego Star Wars photography, titled Small Scenes from a Big Galaxy.
In addition to reprinting many of his Hoth-centric images, the new book adds sections set on Tatooine and Endor. Just like his previous self-produced effort, this larger collection has all the same meticulous detail and humorous staging that helped Lehtimäki’s Flickr account take off. There’s even a behind-the-scenes section where Lehtimäki explains his process—including a fantastic look at the tank he created for his infamous snowy Y-wing shot—and an appendix with information on the specific Lego sets he used to create the photos.
Above are some of the most stunning images from Lehtimäki’s latest collection of little Star Wars wonders.
These Star Wars Lego Scenes Are Flipping Amazing
