• ℹ️ Heads up...

    This is a popular topic that is fast moving Guest - before posting, please ensure that you check out the first post in the topic for a quick reminder of guidelines, and importantly a summary of the known facts and information so far. Thanks.

Wheelhouse Signs Deal With Merlin to Develop Unscripted TV Based on Global Attractions

Skyscraper

Skyscraper

TS Member
Favourite Ride
Nemesis
Now this is interesting...

Could renowned attractions such as the London Eye or the Sea Life aquariums be getting their own TV shows?


That’s part of the plan following a new partnership between Brent Montgomery’s media company Wheelhouse and Merlin Entertainment.


Under the deal, announced Thursday, Wheelhouse and Merlin will develop “original entertainment” programs inspired by the various global attractions in Merlin’s portfolio, including The London Eye and Sea Life, plus Alton Towers, Chessington’s World of Adventures and Warwick Castle. The companies said the programs developed would “span a diverse range of genres, including reality, documentary and game show.”


Merlin owns over 140 attractions across 23 countries, more landmarks than any other entertainment destinations company. Wheelhouse, meanwhile, is behind original series for Netflix, Hulu and Max, as well as a wide variety of U.S. cable and broadcast networks. Prior to launching Wheelhouse, Montgomery was CEO of ITV America, which produces international hits including “Hell’s Kitchen”, “Queer Eye” and “Alone”.


“Currently our guests have to come visit us in person to enjoy the immersiveness of our 140+ theme parks and attractions in 89 cities around the world, but our ambition is to amplify how we bring joy, create connections and make memories for even more than the 62 million guests who visited us in 2023, said Merlin CEO Scott O’Neil. “Through creative innovation and storytelling, our partnership with Wheelhouse will allow us to bring a new dimension to our stories, characters and IP on the largest platforms in the world: TV and entertainment programming. Wheelhouse understands and loves our brands as much as we do, and our partnership will help to create entertaining TV programmes that spotlight our diversity of experiences to iconic landmarks.”


Glenn Hugill (“Deal or No Deal,” “The Mole”), Wheelhouse chief content officer and president of the company’s U.K. division, will drive and oversee the Wheelhouse-Merlin slate.


“It’s a great privilege to develop a roster of new programming around Merlin’s world-famous and iconic attractions, and we’re eager to deploy Wheelhouse’s full arsenal of creative and business capabilities in this partnership,” Montgomery said. “This is what we’ve built Wheelhouse to do, and with Merlin the possibilities are endless; we’re excited to get to work.”
Click to expand...

variety-com.cdn.ampproject.org

The London Eye Reality Show? Wheelhouse Signs Deal With Merlin to Develop Unscripted TV Based on Global Attractions

Wheelhouse and Merlin Entertainment to develop unscripted TV inspired by global attractions, such as the London Eye and Sea Life aquariums .
variety-com.cdn.ampproject.org variety-com.cdn.ampproject.org

Fly-on-the-wall docs or simillar possibly?
 
Loads of interesting things they can do with Merlin

Behind the attraction at their parks
“Making of” rides
MMM documentary
Original movies based on ride IP (I could easily imagine an Alton Manor, Dark Forest, Hex movie)
Original TV based on IP (Nemesis/Phalanx, Smiler/Ministry of Joy, Wickerman/Beornen, Hex)
Interviews/Podcasts with senior staff
Historical documentary

And that’s just with a towers focus
 
Calling it now, this will be primarily Legoland focussed. It's the only property which Merlin own / operate with worldwide recognition and relatability, beside perhaps Madame Tussaud's.

Also calling it now, nothing out of this project will ever come to fruition. Books, memoirs, online comics, blogs, life stories, buildings, newspapers articles, they all get optioned all of the time to make content. 99.9% of these projects never make if off the ground. It's all about covering options, having some potential IP and rights just incase you ever need it (it's why they call it "optioned"). Franky I'm astounded it's aken so long, during the Golden Age of TV for Merlin to option their properties for content, which can only truly, really, means the end of an era.
 
Ah! I was waiting for a media company to sign with a major theme park operator to create original, groundbreaking, inspiring content to contend with the mighty international powerhouse that is Europa-Park's Veejoy.

[/sarcasm]
 
Not a hope they'll be making any serious narrative TV shows or films - they simply won't have the financial backing nor the audience. Something decent based on TCAAM would be in the order of tens if not hundreds of millions - even Disney hasn't been particularly successful with this route with their unlimited pot (see, Tomorrowland, The Haunted Mansion et al).

Documentaries is all I can see being moderately successful - either that or kids shows.
 
Most theme park documentaries tend to be 1-offs, because there simply isn't enough content to sustain a series like Animal Park (Longleat) or Mokey World ect.
Zoos are significantly easier to produce shows for because animals come and go all the time. And even when nothing's going on it's easy to do a piece on a cute animal that's not been featured in a while.
The day to day of Theme Park work however is fairly consistent. Special events are months apart and new rides take years to develop. The few I've seen being made tend to take a whole year to produce, with the film crew taking big gaps between filming sessions.
For a good example see the Voltron series. There's only a half dozen episodes per season, spanning at least 2 years. Most the content is also quirky filler as most the time their's little to talk about.
Same with the Imagineers Story, which spans over 60 years of Disney history in order to fill a whole series.

I can actually see the gameshow route being more likley. It works as the content is reproducible and offers easy marketing for the park.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top