Universal Studios Hollywood Confirms 5 Year Redevelopment Of Lower Lot
Plans in place to make huge changes to their soundstages and a new attraction.
In an exclusive interview with Variety, Universal Studios Hollywood have confirmed a 5 year plan to redevelop its lower lot.
According to the article, Universal will be creating a new theme park attraction next to "Transformers: The Ride". Despite there being no confirmation of which attraction it will be, the front runner is a "Secret Life of Pets" attraction.
The Orlando Sentinel recently confirmed that an attraction based on the movie will be coming to one of Universal's theme parks but as of yet there is no news as to which park this will be.
As well as a new attraction, there are big changes to the soundstage complex in the lower lot.
Michael Moore, president and general manager of NBCUniversal Studio Operations Group, told Variety that due to the changes in the types of production seen in California many soundstages are not designed for this.
“Most of the studios were designed many, many years ago, and much of it was not in a master plan and it was designed for a different type of production in a different era...that were designed to accommodate production from 50, 60, 70 years ago"
Thirteen soundstages are planed to be demolished and following the completion of the redevelopment there will be 4 less in total. It does seem that Universal feel that this is space that they don't need.
Moore said that all these changes “allow us to align the various uses of the property in the right areas.”
One soundstage which has already been removed is Stage 28. This used to house the set from Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera.
It is likely the current Backstage Tram Tour's route will need to change. Parts of it will be dismantled to make way for the new buildings, including the lake used in Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Construction on the 10 new soundstages will be taking place between 2017 and 2018.