RUMOR : Harry Potter Theme Park in the Works?

(Cinematical) – Does Disney have a Harry Potter theme park in the works? That's the whisper through the (animatronic) trees, thanks to a series of conversations that Jim Hill has been having with his readers. It all started with the announcement that the so-called Mouse House was planning to delve into "site-based entertainment", possibly starting with a $3.1 billion casino/indoor theme park in Singapore. "Back up!" you say. "What the hell is this 'site-based entertainment' of which you speak?" Good question. Hill explains that whilst it would be "far more ambitious" than the DisneyQuest concept, and "on a much grander scale", he likens the SBE to a "theme-park-in-a-box", likely involving "an ornate structure that occupies a full city block which is at least six or seven stories tall. With 15 different full-sized rides, shows and attrac-tions all intertwining inside that building." After posting about the general concept and receiving gobs of (mostly hateful) reader mail, Hill went on to post a follow-up, including a tip from a reader who claims to have some tangential familiarity with certain contracts currently floating around Warner Brothers – home, of course, to the Harry Potter film franchise. At the very least, he passed along an email from a friend in the WB department, who hints, "You didn't hear it from me. But there may be a certain wizard visiting the mouse kingdom in the future." Hill seems to buy the rumor, and is enthusiastic about the possibilities for its execution. But, he warns, the boy wizard may not represent the be-all and end-all of Disney's forays into SBE. "If this Harry Potter acquisition deal does fall apart," Hill writes, "I'm told that the Imagineers have another SBE concept that also might fly. One where each floor of this city-block-sized building would then celebrate a Pixar film."