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Waterworld could have been spectacular, but a lot seemed to go wrong for it.

Peach Grove working out seems like a cool thing indeed, esp if they synergy with the WB place across town.

In terms of IP perhaps it’s time to raid the worlds marketplaces- perhaps a remake of Tripods? Blake’s 7, or coming up with their own Superhero franchise?
 
Peach Grove sounds like a fun place, though from what I can tell, it's probably gonna be regarded, at least in its first couple years, as being behind WB Movie World and Universal. The battlefield sounds cool, as does the Close Encounters attraction. Given the praise, it'll likely bring the film back up into further public consciousness.
EDIT: Hell, maybe it might spur a sequel to be made. How does Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind sound?

Also interesting is that the lack of big IPs Columbia has at the moment ITTL is being addressed here. I wonder what big guns they will be?
Mad Max has already happened I think. Personally betting on Waterworld.
Maybe if Zemeckis directed and Costner produced it ITTL.
...I won't spoil anything regarding Waterworld, but I believe that what ending refers to is the other post-apocalyptic Costner film The Postman.
 
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The Stone Mountain Battlefield, where reenactments of famous battles occurred – not just Revolutionary or Civil War, but World Wars, Medieval battles, and the like – was proving a rather unique attraction and served double-duty as a place to film for Columbia Pictures.
Potential unfortunate implications for featuring civil war reenactments aside, how would this even work?
Is it just an empty field most of the time?

But Turner and Totally Fun’s Peter Alexander were most proud of the Close Encounter attraction, a big, outdoor attraction with a giant descending UFO and a mockup of Devil’s Tower, based on the climactic scene of the Spielberg-directed Close Encounters of the Third Kind and made in partnership with Amblin (Spielberg by this point was being playfully referred to as a “theme park whore” for his willingness to sponsor competing attractions with any company). While the fifteen-year-old film had largely fallen out of the public eye, the attraction was so well done as to win high praise (and several awards) within the amusement park industry. Guests said it was best after dark when all the lights were at their most impressive.
Alien Encounter, but made by Columbia?
Sounds great, but one spectacular attraction doesn't makes a theme park.

Even so, Peach Grove was managing to bring in guests, even after “Palmetto Bugs” opened across the city. The studio tours were popular, as was the tour of the H-B animation studio. And strangely, Peach Grove and Warner Movie World turned out to be mutually beneficial, as tourists would go to the one park on their first day and the other on the second, the crosstown rivalry ironically working well for a long weekend style visit.
Ironic 😂
However probably a blessing for all Atlanta visitors, getting to experience two theme parks for relatively cheap sounds like a great deal.

And yet one of the biggest knock-on effects of Peach Grove was that it spurred a reckoning in Columbia Pictures, with an irate Turner lambasting his studio executives to stop “phoning things in” with forgettable films and give him an Indiana Jones or Star Wars level hit that lent itself well to “park synergy”. Columbia Pictures head Dawn Steel pushed back, not afraid to tangle with Turner. The two had many a knock-down, drag-out fight with bets being placed on how much longer Steel had before Turner replaced her, or she left for greener pastures.

In the end, however, both knew that Columbia Pictures needed a win, and needed one soon, so they set aside their differences and set out to find that Big Film that could be Tuner’s Indiana Jones. Steel approached Kevin Costner with a screenplay that Turner had snagged after a long bidding war with Triad and Warner Brothers. Costner read through the screenplay, falling in love with its post-apocalyptic setting and its potential for sweeping cinematography and action, and signed up on the spot.
So I guess that this will be a major push for Columbia to make more action blockbusters in the future?

I wonder if critics will view this as a sellout?
I'm sadly not familiar enough with Columbia's filmography to say if this constitutes an improvement or not.😅

Also a post apocalyptic movie featuring Kevin Costner is normally a recipe for disaster.

But maybe it's just crazy enough to work.
 
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Waterworld could have been spectacular, but a lot seemed to go wrong for it.

Peach Grove working out seems like a cool thing indeed, esp if they synergy with the WB place across town.

In terms of IP perhaps it’s time to raid the worlds marketplaces- perhaps a remake of Tripods? Blake’s 7, or coming up with their own Superhero franchise?

Surprisingly enough, Waterworld was number nine on the top-grossing films of 1995; it brought in $264,218,220. The problem was that its budget ballooned to $175 million from its initial $65 million, so it wasn't profitable enough by Hollywood accounting.
As a theme park attraction, it works a lot better. Waterworld: a Live Sea War Spectacular is still popular at Universal Studios Hollywood to this day. Popular enough to get versions at their parks in Japan, Singapore, and Beijing.
 
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Surprisingly enough, Waterworld was number nine on the top-grossing films of 1995; it brought in $264,218,220. The problem was that its budget ballooned to $175 million from its initial $65 million, so it wasn't profitable enough by Hollywood accounting.
As a theme park attraction, it works a lot better. Waterworld: a Live Sea War Spectacular is still popular at Universal Studios Hollywood to this day. Popular enough to get versions at their parks in Japan, Singapore, and Beijing.
Would you believe that the live show in universal studios Hollywood was how I discovered the movie?
 
Also, I've been wondering what would happen to Wild Adventures in Valdosta. While it won't open for another four years and is in the other side of Georgia, when it does it will be a simple zoo called Liberty Farms. NGL, to avoid competition with its northern neighbours, maybe it becomes a normal zoo instead?
 
If Peach Grove's on the I-20 as well, it shouldn't be too difficult for MARTA to set up a Park Line from one to another (coincidentally also running through downtown, the college cluster and the zoo).
 
The opening of Colombia Peach Grove Studios could've been better (I guess virtually every movie theme park is going to face the same disastrous opening curse, and that includes Disney....), but it ended up surviving despite the many hiccups along the way. The real flaw with the park is definitely Columbia's poor selection of IP for the theme park. I mean...Dances with Wolves?? Really? Aside from the movies, I also think Cartoon City needs better original shows to complement both PGS and their current Hanna-Barbera lineup too, but we'll see how Ted Turner handles that.

It's interesting to see how the two parks in Atlanta are synergizing with each other, despite being rivals. We already got a hint that all four parks will have a similar relationship but I'm thinking the competition will be more intense for each of the counterparts, so it'll be exciting to see how each theme park will react to each other.

After reading the post for the first time, I immediately thought of the film Waterworld or The Postman since those were the only two movies that fit the category to a T. I'm thinking that it is Waterworld as that's probably the better premise, but I think Columbia is both desperate and willing enough to turn both of them into legitimate franchises.

Potential unfortunate implications for featuring civil war reenactments aside, how would this even work?
Is it just an empty field most of the time?
It's probably an empty field with some props for reenactments. I'm thinking professional actors are probably hired since there's no way hobbyists could do it unless these historical reenactments happen infrequently.

So I guess that this will be a major push for Columbia to make more action blockbusters in the future?

I wonder if critics will view this as a sellout?
I'm sadly not familiar enough with Columbia's filmography to say if this constitutes an improvement or not.😅

Also a post apocalyptic movie featuring Kevin Costner is normally a recipe for disaster.

But maybe it's just crazy enough to work.
I hope Geekhis rewards crazy because I like this new direction from Columbia. A Waterworld/Postman franchise is incredibly fascinating since it would be post-apoc franchises that's refreshingly NOT zombies.
 
Filming the movie using water tanks instead of the ocean would save the production a whole lot of time and money. Especially since they wouldn’t need to rebuild the set after a hurricane sinks it like in OTL.
 
The real flaw with the park is definitely Columbia's poor selection of IP for the theme park. I mean...Dances with Wolves?? Really?
I think the post explicitly says that Coster forbid them from using "Dances with the Wolves" characters or locations.
So do not worry @Denliner 😂

But yeah Columbia Peach Grove Studio, we need a good nickname for this, is definitely starving for good IPs that they can turn into great rides. Their best attraction isn't even based on one of their own IPs!

Embarrassing.
 
I think the post explicitly says that Coster forbid them from using "Dances with the Wolves" characters or locations.
So do not worry @Denliner
Phew, but the fact that Ted Turner was desperate enough to do that was a bit yikes. :neutral:

But yeah Columbia Peach Grove Studio, we need a good nickname for this, is definitely starving for good IPs that they can turn into great rides. Their best attraction isn't even based on one of their own IPs!
"Barren Grove Studio" seems pretty fitting but I wouldn't blame some critic to coin some ridiculously funny/offensive term against Ted Turner just like how Spielberg is called a "theme park whore" ITTL.

Yeah, it's not like they have a lot of options. Men in Black, Air Force One and Fifth Element won't exist for another five years... what've they got, Karate Kid?
But that's like 5 years. They need relevant/popular IPs now.
 
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I would suggest the stopmotion films of Ray Harryhausen, especially Sinbad. They're relatively known amongst the public.
Unless there already is part of the park themed after one and Geekhis didn't mention it; I picture a roller coaster with theming limited to the queue and maybe the track.

Of course, Columbia can always option some obscure science fiction or fantasy novel we never heard of for the big one.
 
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