Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and the Universal Orlando Resort said they will open a theme park in Florida based on the Harry Potter novels in late 2009.
The park, called the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, will feature rides, shops and attractions from the books that follow the adventures of the teenage wizard, the companies said today in a statement distributed by PR Newswire. The village of Hogsmeade, the mysterious Forbidden Forest and Hogwarts castle will be recreated. "The plans I've seen look incredibly exciting, and I don't think fans of the books or films will be disappointed," Harry Potter author J.
K. Rowling said in the statement. The Harry Potter books have been translated into 65 languages, with more than 325 million copies sold worldwide.
The seventh and final installment, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," will be published on July 21. Four Harry Potter films, produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, have grossed more than $3.
5 billion at the box office worldwide. Theme park owner Universal Parks Resorts is owned by NBC Universal Inc., which is a unit of General Electric Co.
NBC Universal is 80 percent owned by General Electric and 20 percent owned by Paris-based Vivendi SA. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
is owned by Time Warner Inc. The books are published in the U.K.
by London-based Bloomsbury Publishing Plc and in the U.S. by Scholastic Corp.
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