Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Associated Press
A blazing inferno ripped through Universal Studios in California on Sunday at the 400-acre theme park.
The fire is now contained, but in the path of destruction were movie sets made to resemble New England streets, a King Kong exhibit, and a video vault that housed copies of various films. Thankfully, Universal Studios said that nothing destroyed was irreplaceable.
From The New York Times:
Universal officials said the video vault, which was still burning as of Sunday afternoon, contained images of films and television shows dating back to the 1920s, including the films “Knocked Up” and “Atonement” and the NBC series “Law & Order” and “The Office.”
But in no case was the destroyed material the only copy of a work, the officials said.
The “King Kong” attraction, one of the most popular on a tram tour that begins inside the Universal Studios theme park and continues through portions of the lot, was completely destroyed, a Universal spokesman said.
Also damaged in the fire were a New York street scene that was used only recently in the filming of “Frost/Nixon,” an upcoming Universal film directed by Ron Howard, and a courthouse square that was featured prominently in “Back to the Future.”
I guess the somewhat good thing about this is that they can now use the charred set for a new disaster movie.
wait…. is the courthouse square the one that’s in the scene where doc rigs up the contraption to channel the lightning bolt?
also, new york is not in new england.
yeah, that courthouse used in that movie is now gone.
also, I’ll fix the NY thing. :P
i was on my way to church today and when my mom and i turned the corner from my street we saw the big billowing cloud of smoke from universal. It made the whole sky so nasty.
i was driving back to pasadena yesterday and my mother asked me if i saw the fire and i was like nooo…