Harry Potter to get his own park

[Skylace]

J.K. Rowling, who became the world's first billion-dollar author on the back of Harry Potter's success, has given the go-ahead for the creation of a Florida theme park dedicated to the schoolboy wizard.

"The plans I have seen look incredibly exciting and I don't think fans of the books or films will be disappointed," Rowling said of the Orlando park that is scheduled to open in 2009.

The park is a joint venture between Warner Bros Entertainment, whose Potter films have so far grossed more than $3.5 billion worldwide, and Universal Orlando Resort.

In a statement rich in entertainment hyperbole, the builders of "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" said they plan to "create the world's first immersive Harry Potter themed environment."

Barry Meyer, chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Entertainment, said: "Over the years we've received thousands of letters from fans around the world wishing they could visit Hogwarts (School) and the wonderful locations described in each of J.K. Rowling's beloved stories."

Warner Bros. Entertainment is a unit of Time Warner (Charts, Fortune 500), as is CNNMoney.com.

The park's opening could help quell the withdrawal symptoms of Potter fans around the globe who have bought 320 million copies of her wizard tales and turned every one of the films into a box-office hit.

Pottermania is set to scale new heights in July with the last novel hitting the bookstands and the latest film being launched in a deluge of global publicity.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the final installment in Rowling's hugely successful series, is being released July 21.

Rowling is to mark publication with a moonlight reading for fans at London's Natural History Museum.

Sweepstakes are being conducted by her British publisher Bloomsbury Publishing Plc and American publisher Scholastic to pick the winning fans.

"Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix," the fifth film in a blockbuster series based on the books, is being given its official world premiere in London on July 3.

Rowling, whose books are always released under tight security, has said two characters will die in the seventh and final book, but she has refused to give any clues.

The author has appealed to people to keep the end a secret: "I want the readers who have, in many instances, grown up with Harry, to embark on the last adventure they will share with him without knowing where they are going."

U.S. authors John Irving and Stephen King were so worried about the fictional hero's fate that they urged Rowling to spare the bespectacled hero. Top of page

[SpursFan1902]

If they do it well, it could be kinda cool. Rowling is so descriptive, that they have a great blue print to go by. I love the HP books and movies and this could be a way to keep them going. I know that there will be lots of backlash (we don't need more amusement parks, just in it for the money, capitalist pig-dogs, ect...) but hundreds of thousands of people go the existing parks daily and generate alot of income for our area, the area of any theme park really. The economic impact can be huge when one of these parks opens up. They open up alot of jobs, especially for kids during the summer, so I don't think that it is such a bad idea.