Fast & Furious 6 Paul Walker Driving - H 2013
Universal PicturesThe Fast & Furious franchise is getting the theme park treatment.
Universal Studios Hollywood will debut Fast & Furious – Supercharged in summer 2015, described as a “pulse-pounding, adrenaline-fueled finale” to the park’s signature Studio Tour attraction, it was announced Tuesday.
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The new segment of the big-screen backlot tour ride — which currently includes Psycho and Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas set visits as well as staged reenactments from Jaws, Jurassic Park and King Kong films — will take place inside a 50,000-square-foot building, featuring characters from the Fast & Furious series in an original storyline set in Los Angeles.
The hydraulic-based ride will surround attendees with 3D front-projections from 18 4K projectors onto “the world’s longest and most expansive 360-degree screen,” which spans nearly 400 feet. Numerous prop cars from the series, including Dom’s (Vin Diesel) Dodge Charger, will be featured, and video clips with the actors will play on the tram’s monitors.
“Fast & Furious is an exhilarating global film phenomenon that has been consistently characterized as a thrill ride,” said Larry Kurzweil, president of Universal Studios Hollywood. “As Universal Studios Hollywood marks its 50th anniversary, this definitive and quite literal Fast & Furious thrill ride will propel guests into the action alongside many of the series’ heroes, just as the theme park itself is thrust into high gear as part of an epic five-year transformation.”
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The upcoming addition won’t be the first time the car-racing franchise has been part of the studio tour, as a special effects segment based on the series’ third installment, The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift, was introduced in 2006. Featuring two cars that first withstood simulated gunshots and explosions before robotic arms lifted them into the air to engage in a spinning dance, the section was closed in 2013.
Supercharged is part of a larger theme park expansion that follows the addition of Transformers: The Ride – 3D in 2012, the Universal Plaza in 2013, and the upcoming opening of Despicable Me Minion Mayhem and Super Silly Fun Land on April 12. A Simpsons-themed land, Springfield, and a “nocturnal” version of the Studio Tour will also open in 2015, followed by the popular Orlando theme park attraction The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in 2016.
Email: Ashley.Lee@THR.com
Twitter: @cashleelee
