MOVIES
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Costumes from The Mummy,
DOUBLE BILL
Elizabeth, Seabiscuit and
The Blues Brothers,
“I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” said Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca.
He may have been talking to his co-star, but he could well have been predicting the relationship
between fi lm and attractions. In the fi rst of a new series looking at movies within attractions,
Kathleen Whyman talks to the creators of two museums dedicated to the fi lm industry
The NBC Universal Experience,
Hollywood
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JOHN MURDY, CREATIVE DIRECTOR
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earning about the history of fi lm in a studio that dates back
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to the birth of movies is the premise for The NBC Universal
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Experience. Part of Universal Studios Hollywood, the
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two-year-old museum showcases artefacts from the studio’s fi rst
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Oscar-winning fi lm in 1930, All Quiet on the Western Front, right
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through to 2009 fi lms Public Enemies, Milk and Frost Nixon. U
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“Universal has such a rich movie history in LA,” says creative
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director John Murdy. “There’s an incredible wealth of movie history
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and props, costumes and artefacts the public’s never seen before.”
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Costume drama
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The fi rst half of the exhibit, Onscreen, displays costumes and props Exhibit of Universal’s long history as a working movie studio
used in fi lms. Behind The Scenes reveals the designs and tech-
nologies that go into making a movie. This includes an extensive Murdy would like to display more but doesn’t have the space.
collection of early movie cameras and pre-cinema devices, which “You think miniatures would be small, but they’re getting bigger
pre-date projectors, some going back to the mid-1800s. all the time,” he laughs. “Peter Jackson, the director of King Kong,
The exhibition has approximately 100 pieces on display, renamed them bigiatures. The castle from Van Helsing is 20ft (6m)
which change every few months to make the most of the exten- tall. The Saturn rocket in the launch sequence from Apollo 13 is
sive archive. Costumes come from fi lms including Mamma Mia, also 20ft tall. I’d love to showcase them but they’re too large.”
Elizabeth – the Golden Age and The Blues Brothers plus Johnny
Depp’s John Dillinger wardrobe from Public Enemies. Among Oscar winner
the props are Gregory Peck’s briefcase and glasses from To Kill The key attraction is Universal’s best picture Oscar that was won
a Mockingbird, the communicator ET phoned home with and for The Sting. “We’ve all seen Oscars on tv, but never up close,”
Norman Bates’ taxidermy owl from Psycho. In Behind the Scenes, says Murdy. “For a lot of people that’s a big thrill. ”
visitors can see the original concept drawings for Bruce – the great For Murdy, the big thrill was discovering the artefacts, many of
white shark from Jaws, dinosaur maquettes from Jurassic Park, Jim them decades old. “It’s gratifying that all these items survived,”
Carrey’s prosthetics from The Grinch and a miniature DeLorean says Murdy. “Movie studios never used to think props or cos-
[the car modifi ed into a time machine] from Back to the Future. tumes would mean anything to the public, so they were recycled or
36 Read Attractions Management online
attractionsmanagement.com/digital AM 1 2010
©
cybertrek 2010
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