Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming November 2015 10 Cover Story that’s interrupted by an attack from Batman’s arch enemy, The Joker. According to the ride’s story line, the attack requires guests’ evacuation to the Batcave via the 72 seat 4D flight simulator that swoops and dives through Gotham City as Batman fights super villains attacking the flight and population below. The seven minute simulation segment features moving seats and special effects that heighten the feel of flying. The House of Magic is set to vie with Batman for Studio City’s star billing. Illusionist Franz Harary, whose global credits include working in mainland China since 1994, conceived the complex with four performance venues offering three shows daily, four on weekends. Beginning in a steam punk drawing room, different magicians perform in distinct styles at each stop over 90 minutes, culminating with Mr Harary’s resident Mega Magic show. That theater’s massive video screen backdrop is as extraordinary as the tricks on stage. The complex extends to Shanghai Magic, offering fine dining in Victorian décor, highlighting that era’s fascination with mechanical curiosities that seemed magical at the time. Warner Bros Fun Zone focuses on children with rides and other attractions based on the Warner Brothers stable that includes DC Comics, Hanna-Barbera and Looney Tunes. Physical and interactive activities are designed for toddlers to teens, with opportunities for the entire family to participate and even compete in some challenges, such as the Hypercade, where riders aim their blasters at 3D targets Big names, small film The stars came out for Studio City’s opening night premiere of The Audition , Academy Award winning director Martin Scorsese’s “dream state” short film. The 16 minute movie features two of Mr Scorsese’s frequent collaborators, Oscar winner Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, plus Brad Pitt, the only one of the stars to miss the highly anticipated and relentlessly promoted film’s debut. It’s the first time those three Hollywood leading men have appeared in the same film. Melco Crown Co-Chairmen Lawrence Ho and James Packer executive produced The Audition at a reported cost of US$70 million or $4.4 million per minute. Mr Packer, who says his favorite movie is Mr Scorsese’s Casino , starring Mr De Niro, credits Mr Ho with suggesting “what better to introduce a movie-themed integrated resort” than a movie. Mr Packer enlisted his RatPac Entertainment partner, Hollywood veteran Bret Ratner to produce the film and calls it, “the best 15 minutes of short content ever made.” The Audition opens at the entrance of Melco Crown’s City of Dreams Manila, and the film’s trailer was released to coincide with that resort’s debut in February. Mr De Niro and Mr DiCaprio arrive and learn they’re to vie for the same role in Mr Scorsese’s film about a casino mogul. The action then moves to Studio City Macau where the casino serves as a backdrop, and the three men dine. Promotion of the resorts is decidedly subtle, and the properties’ names are not in the script. Mr Pitt enters for what Mr Scorsese calls the film’s “big finish” in Japan. The Tokyo outdoor dining street setting has a biomorphic building lurking in the background. That could represent Melco Crown’s design proposal for an integrated resort in Japan, where casino legalization seemed imminent 18 months ago but has not progressed. Viewers may not find that the only disappointment in the film. Perhaps inspired by The Audition , Mr Scorsese is currently directing another Macau related film, Silence , about 17th century Catholic missionaries from the then-Portuguese outpost being martyred in Japan. But rather than shooting on location in the UNESCO World Heritage area, the filmmakers opted to recreate 1640s Macau in Taiwan. “We steered away from VIP gaming tables a long time ago. Since our IPO [on the US NASDAQ exchange in 2006] we believed mass tables would be leading the Macau market,” Mr Ho explains. “At 250 tables, it was a no- brainer for us” to forgo VIP gaming.