Includes The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror The heart of Walt Disney Studios comes to life with a whole new Hollywood Boulevard of glamorous 1950s movie sets! Inauguration Date Late 2007 Location Surrounding The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror |  FAQ
When is the official opening? Late 2007 / Early 2008 – with The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror What is ‘Placemaking’? Defining an area’s location and time through new themeing. Are these real stores and restaurants? No, this is a new development of movie set façades to compliment the Tower of Terror and its location within the backlot of a movie studio. Is Hollywood Blvd a separate land? Upon opening, yes. However in the future the entire Production Courtyard will eventually become ‘Hollywood Studio’. In parallel to the Toon Studio project, Production Courtyard is also receiving a far grander series of enhancements and additions, to eventually be renamed ‘Hollywood Studio’. Whilst the Hollywood Studio project will eventually encompass the whole of Production Courtyard, from Studio Tram Tour right the way around to Rendez-Vous des Stars restaurant, this first major phase of work is taking place between Disney Studio 1 and Studio Tram Tour, adding around eight sets and façades to create an immersive and glamorous Hollywood Boulevard area. Designed to compliment The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, the sets will also lead on from where Disney Studio 1 begins, towards a tunnel in the Hollywood Hills doubling as a new entrance for Studio Tram Tour. Many of the set elements, except notibly the backdrop and tunnel, will be replicas of those found at Disney’s two existing Hollywood streets. First, Sunset Boulevard and Hollywood Boulevard at Disney-MGM Studios Florida, opened between 1989 and 1994. Second, Hollywood Pictures Backlot at Disney’s California Adventure park (DCA), opened 2001. Whilst these streets are similar to the traditional Main Street, with the façades hiding stores and restaurants in standard buildings behind, the Parisian Hollywood Boulevard will largely feature only the façades themselves, giving the effect of a true movie set development. |
Hollywood Inspirations This new Hollywood Boulevard has an almost endless list of inspirations. With many of the sets lifted from the Hollywood Boulevards at Disney’s two other studio-themed park areas, built over an entire decade apart, the development has a ready-made collection of fun facts and secrets to tell. The key inspiration from Imagineering past is certainly the main boulevard of Hollywood Pictures Backlot, Disney’s California Adventure (DCA). Built in 2001, this street introduced the concept of using a giant “backdrop” to frame the scene. Although, in reality, this also served as a unique way to hide the giant building of the park’s Hyperion Theater – the backdrop is applied directly to the building. In Paris, the similar Hollywood Hills backdrop will be free-standing. The idea to use a series of movie set façades as a themed area for guests to explore comes from Disney-MGM Studios, and before this, Universal Studios Hollywood. The buildings featured mix of a wide variety of Hollywood styles, from the more exotic Pueblo buildings surrounding the Pueblo Deco Hollywood Tower Hotel to the skyscraper Art Deco of the First National Bank and the more East Coast (New York City) appearance of the Broadway Building apartments. Unlike the nighttime Hollywood Boulevard of Disney Studio 1, however, which features a collection of simpler indoor façades from across 50 years, the sets on this new outdoor Boulevard are due to remain within one, single timeframe: the 1950s. This puts the street set at around 11+ years following the closure of The Hollywood Tower Hotel behind. More inspirations for each location can be found in their descriptions to the right >> | Placemaking Project What was once an uninspiring piece of tarmac between Disney Bros. Plaza and Studio Tram Tour is being transformed into a Hollywood Boulevard as only Hollywood could imagine it. Colourful and detailed façades will nestle along the street and around Tower of Terror to create a truly magical “Boulevard of Dreams”. This new series of Hollywood facades and landmarks will be a real tribute to not only Tinseltown’s greatest architecture but the ability of its filmsets to bring worlds to life in even the most fictional backlot developments. The sets may be two-dimensional and odd seen from the wrong angle, but when you’re down there rubbing shoulders with other cast and crew, you’re a part of Hollywood history. From DCA = Disney’s California Adventure (CA), MGM = Disney-MGM Studios (FLA), WDS = Walt Disney Studios  1 | Gone Hollywood From: DCA; Completed: Under Construction. Gone Hollywood, an almost exact replica of the very same storefront at Disney’s California Adventure, will fill the length of the Art of Disney Animation queueline with its sleek Art Deco façade. At DCA, this is used as the entrance to an actual store behind. The storefront features an iconic neon sign with the words “Gone Hollywood” – a good introduction for guests to the land – and a typically Deco clock atop its roof. The ground floor windows will be filled with movie memorabilia and countless hints to Disney’s Hollywood history. Photos: [1] | [2] | [3] |  2 | Sweet Success From: MGM; Completed: Under Construction The furthest edge of the new development is occupied by a building inspired by the ‘Sweet Success’ candy store on Hollywood Boulevard at Disney-MGM Studios, a building in the Spanish Colonial Revivial style. Like all of the buildings on this corner of the boulevard, the Mediterranean-inspired architecture makes it a good companion for the Pueblo Deco Tower of Terror behind. Whilst the MGM version also features an adjoining section with a curved roof, at WDS the building is a single, square tower. A further change is the additon of a huge red, rusted dome atop the WDS version. As the largest (in floorspace/dimensional terms) of all the Hollywood Boulevard sets, it seems perfectly possible that this building could feature some kind of food retail. Photos: [1] | [2] |  3 | Argyle Building From: DCA; Completed: Under Construction Next door, we skip across the USA to Disney’s California Adventure and its popular Argyle Building, which features a peaked roof, a balcony first floor and a store below – “Ben Hair”. It’s unknown whether this theme element in particular will remain for the WDS version, or if DCA’s trademark bad puns will remain inside the gates of DCA. The Argyle Building is actually also joined to its WDS parter, La Brea Carpets, in DCA. However, both buildings are placed directly next to each other, whilst at WDS they will be placed facing slightly away from one another on the corner of the boulevard. Photos: [1] |  4 | La Brea Carpets From: DCA; Completed: Under Construction This unusual façade has three stories, a large wooden entrance door, large arched windows and balconies along its top floor. Its height will be increased further at WDS with a large billboard atop its roof. This row of façades will enclose La Terrasse from the main walkway and parade route across the centre of the park. As the heart of Walt Disney Studios, this particular area will also house the main Tips Board (which features wait times, show times, etc) next to a long-awaited water feature – only the second in the entire park. It is unlikely the four wildly-designed window canopies will remain the same for WDS, since whilst the DCA Hollywood Pictures Backlot is very much a modern Hollywood, the Parisian version will have strictly a 1950s time theme. Photos: [1] | [2] |  5 | Off the Page (La Terrasse Entrance) From: DCA; Completed: Under Construction The eleborate façade of ‘Off the Page’ is that of a full boutique at Disney’s California Adventure, with a large sign featuring Disney characters across its front. In Walt Disney Studios, this signage will not appear and the main entrance tower will be replicated as a stand-alone building. Its arched entrance (hidden by the characters signage at DCA) will serve as a grand entrance to the La Terrasse food court area in WDS, located behind this row of façades. A vertical sign featuring the letters “La TERRASSE” will decorate the front. La Terrasse itself has been given an overcoat in a similar sandy yellow style, with more turqouise details. Photos: [1] |  6 | First National Bank From: Designed for WDS; Completed: Under Construction The first set here entirely unique to Walt Disney Studios, this is one of two “skyscraper” façades to stand tall either side of the boulevard at its junction with the street leading past The Hollywood Tower Hotel. The inspiration is the First National Bank on the real Hollywood Boulevard, a real Hollywood landmark and a wealthy location that should sit well next to The Hollywood Tower. Photos: [1] | [2] |  7 | Broadway Building at Hollywood & Vine From: Designed for WDS; Completed: Under Construction Across the building, more forced perspective will go to play to recreate the famous ‘Broadway Building’, located at the junction of Hollywood & Vine – the location to see and be seen back in the 1950s. The real building was formerly a famous department store, and has recently been refurbished into stylish apartments following years of neglect. Placing this famous building just moments from The Hollywood Tower Hotel signifies that the hotel is right at the heart of the glitz and glamour, “just off Hollywood & Vine!”. Photos: [1] | [2] | [3] | [4] |  8 | Hollywood Hills Tunnel From: Designed for WDS; Completed: Under Construction The Hollywood Hills Tunnel is one of the most unique features about this Hollywood Boulevard. Whilst Disney has struggled in the past to fill the void between the real street and its fictional backdrop (see Hollywood Pictures Backlot or MGM’s San Francisco street), the problem will be solved at Walt Disney Studios with a large tunnel leading into the famous Hollywood Hills behind. The tunnel will become the main entrance to Studio Tram Tour: Behind the Magic. Tunnels like this wind their way through countless areas of the real city, and one has already been at the park since 2002 – on the far right of the huge mural at the exit of Disney Studio 1 you can see a tunnel almost identical to this hidden away. A strange coincidence or a secret hint to the future? |  9 | Hollywood Hills Backdrop From: Designed for WDS; Completed: Under Construction Filling the sky behind the entire development will be a huge new backdrop of the famous Hollywood Hills themselves. The backdrop will likely replace the current billboard entrance sign of Studio Tram Tour itself, standing above the queue area below. |  10 | From: Designed for WDS; Completed: Under Construction The shining star of Hollywood Boulevard that appears to have lost its sparkle… Whilst the rest of the boulevard is filled with the glitz and glamour of the 1950s, a forgotten hangout for Hollywood greats, closed in 1939, lies on a side street just off the junction of Hollywood & Vine. For over 10 years, no-one has been in or out… until now! As visitors enter the hotel with all the optimism of the 50s, the mood is quickly darkened – not least by the screams echoing from the 13th floor above… Full Guide » |  11 | Tower Hotel Gifts From: Designed for WDS; Completed: Under Construction The main boutique on Hollywood Boulevard, the stylish Tower Hotel Gifts can be found in the grounds of The Hollywood Tower Hotel selling a wide variety of merchandise and souvenirs recovered from the hotel’s more affluent history. Also the place to pick up souvenir photos from The Twilight Zone. |  12 | Luggage Concierge / Fastpass From: Designed for WDS; Completed: Under Construction On the corner of The Hollywood Tower Hotel nearest Hollywood Boulevard, a convenient bus stop and luggage drop/pick-up area has now been reserved for new guests to pick up their so-called “Fastpass” tickets to the hotel next door. The Fastpass machines themselves are themed entirely to stacks of baggage from around the world. Photos: [1] | |
Project Timeline 16th March 2002
Walt Disney Studios Park opens. 11th January 2005
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror officially announced for the park. 5th January 2007
Rumours circulate that Hollywood Boulevard is coming, construction to begin within days! 10th January 2007
Entire project confirmed with Imagineer talks, concept art and plans at the 15th Anniversary cast Rendez-Vous event. 22nd January 2007
First construction walls appear. 9th May 2007
First steel frames constructed. 14th July 2007
First theme elements appear on buildings. FULL Construction Timeline >> | History Despite Disney Studio 1 being originally planned as the park’s traditional “Main Street” from the earliest blueprints for Disney-MGM Studios Europe, rumours of a Hollywood-themed street stretching out from Disney Bros. Plaza circulated ever since Walt Disney Studios Park first opened on 16th March 2002. Whilst it was generally presumed a Hollywood Boulevard would only arrive once the park was ready to expand beyond its current boundaries and the Studio Tram Tour station be moved, 2006 brought rumours of a new “Hollywood Studio” project to transform Production Courtyard and expand the popular theme of the under-construction Tower of Terror. Sets and façades for the “Place des Stars” area of Production Courtyard were rumoured, but no mention was made of the long-awaited outdoor boulevard. The first weeks of 2007 finally brought confirmation of the Hollywood Studio project, at the annual Cast Member Rendez-Vous event. The event spans several days to allow all Cast Members to be given a preview of upcoming events and attractions, with the major news being the surprise confirmation of the entire Hollywood Boulevard project! The ‘placemaking’ project was announced to the press (and subsequently confirmed once again to the public and fans) at the 1st April 2007 press conference, an event previewing all the new attractions due to debut during the 15th Anniversary. The presentation included the first showing of a new piece of concept art for the boulevard, featuring a square Hollywood Hills backdrop and a “Bank of Hollywood” at its centre. It later emerged that this was an initial concept for the Walt Disney Studios Park development, but that ideas has subsequently changed into the project and line-up of sets we see under construction today. |
