On this week’s The Drill Down podcast, a tragic shooting at an eSports tournament, President Trump says Google is rigged to make him look bad, Tesla stays public, 3D guns, killer robots … and much, much more.
Universal Studios announced on Friday on their Facebook page that their Orlando, Florida resort will be closing the Jaws-themed area and water ride Captain Jake’s Amity Boat Tours on January 2, 2012.
The ride, which was inspired by the Jaws portion of the Universal Studios Hollywood resort’s backlot tram experience, has been in operation since the Orlando resort opened in June 1990 at a cost of $65 million. Three months after the ride opened Universal temporarily shut it down due to technical problems, but was successfully re-opened in the spring of 1993 with Jaws director Steven Spielberg and stars Roy Scheider and Lorraine Gary on hand for the occasion. Over the next 18 years the ride would be continuously closed and refurbished often due to hurricanes that struck central Florida.
Disney has announced that Star Tours is coming back, and that the newly updated attraction will reopen May 20, 2011, at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in at the Disney World theme park in Orlando, Florida. Star Tours is a motion simulator attraction based on the Star Wars universe created by George Lucas. It was first launched at Disneyland in 1987 as a creative collaboration between Disney Imagineers and George Lucas with Industrial Light and Magic.
The new version, retitled Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, will be based on a story set between Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Anthony Daniels, James Earl Jones, and Peter Mayhew reprise their roles as C-3PO, Darth Vader, and Chewbacca, respectively, for the attraction.
Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press