Star Wars filming draws crowds to Ireland

Magic Kingdom world’s top theme park, drawing 20m

BALLYFERRITER, Ireland, May 26, (Agencies): The plot for the next Star Wars film is guarded more closely than the Death Star but one thing is certain, it will feature plenty of Irish mist and rain.

The regular downpours — helped by tankers of water brought on set just in case — failed to dim the enthusiasm of hardy fans and local businesses cashing in as director Rian Johnson began shooting this month on a remote stretch of coastline in southwest Ireland.

“There’s a buzz around and the exposure worldwide is unbelievable,” said Donal O Cathain, a bar owner in Ballyferriter, the small village nearest the set constructed on Ceann Sibeal, a rocky promontory.

Christy Mac Gearailt, who runs a local restaurant, said: “I don’t know if the force is with us but it has certainly forced us to work a lot harder because of the increase in the number of visitors.”

The last movie in the Lucasfilm Disney Star Wars series, which was released in December, has generated more than $2 billion at the box office, making it the third highest grossing film of all time.

“Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens” also featured Ireland in a dramatic ending filmed in a sixth-century monastic settlement off the west Irish coast.

“Ireland has become an important part of Star Wars history,” Candice Campos from Lucasfilm Disney, said in a statement this year officially announcing that Ireland would feature in the eighth instalment.

Irish Film Board chief executive

“Last Days in the Desert,” starring Ewan McGregor.

TheatriCast is partnering with Warner Bros for the special showings. It has not yet set locations, but a spokesperson indicated that probable sites are in Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Seattle, Nashville, Richmond, Phoenix and Washington, James Hickey said he hoped for “increased levels of job creation, incoming tourists and foreign direct investment to Ireland.”

Episode VIII in the saga is scheduled for release in December 2017.

Among the fans eagerly awaiting the premiere will be Irish-American Jack Sullivan who was in a group trying to catch a glimpse of a structure jutting out from the hilltop, believed to be a Jedi temple.

“This is a real bonus on our trip to Ireland,” he said. “It’s just a pity we can’t get to see it up close — I can’t wait until the movie comes out now!”

But some locals complained about the disruption in this rural spot — one of the last remaining areas where Irish Gaelic remains the primary language.

Louis Mulcahy, who has been hosting some of the visitors at his pottery shop to view the set through a telescope, complained about the traffic around the Dingle Peninsula, which is already one of Ireland’s busiest tourist routes.

“The increase in numbers certainly won’t help,” he said.

Truck loads of equipment have navigated the narrow roads in recent weeks to ferry equipment to a hastilybuilt camp at the bottom of a hill near Ballyferriter that is usually home only to a few sheep.

Local owners of four-wheel drive off-road vehicles are reportedly earning 300 euros ($335) a day to ferry the cast and crew along a temporary road up the hillside to the shoot location,

DC. (RTRS)

Glimpse

ST PETERSBURG, Fla:

Is Hulk Hogan’s courtroom cage match with Gawker being bankrolled by a high-tech billionaire with a grudge against the news-and-gossip site?

Two months after Hogan won a $140 which is bounded by cliffs on three sides.

Around 450 people were working on the set amid tight security to prevent any leaks about the new film.

Landowners have signed onerous secrecy agreements and none will speak openly about the layout of the site for fear that they would not receive the promised compensation for the use of their fields.

Nor were they prepared to talk about their windfalls.

Workers have had to check in mobile phones to prevent them taking pictures and the Irish Aviation Authority has imposed a no-fly zone over the area.

Still, the village’s three bars have been humming with conversations about that day’s happenings on site and how the stars are conducting themselves.

The friendliness and down-to-earth manner of Mark Hamill, who plays the saga’s main hero Luke Skywalker, was singled out by several locals for particular praise.

But some business owners were openly sceptical of claims that the film is enhancing prosperity.

“We have seen plenty of cars passing our door to go to the site but you can count on one finger the number of local people actually working there,” said Eamon Houlihan, owner of the Black Cat shop in the village.

ORLANDO,

Also: Fla:

Disney World’s Magic Kingdom continues to be the top amusement park draw in the world with 20.5 million visitors in 2015, according to a report released Wednesday.

million invasion-of-privacy verdict against Gawker for posting a tape of him, news reports say the pro wrestler is secretly backed by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Peter Thiel.

Thiel, who co-founded PayPal and was an early investor in Facebook, was outed as gay by a Gawker-owned website in Disneyland in Anaheim, California, was No. 2 with an estimated 18.3 million visitors, followed by Tokyo Disneyland, which had an estimated 16 million, according to a report from AECOM and the Themed Entertainment Association.

Disney World, Universal Orlando and SeaWorld all saw a jump in attendance in 2015 over the previous year, according to the report.

Epcot was sixth in the world in attendance with 11.8 million, a 5 percent increase from 2014. Disney’s Animal Kingdom drew 10.8 million, also a 5 percent increase, and Universal Orlando saw the biggest increase, with a 16 percent jump to 9.9 million visitors.

“Last year we said everything was looking good in the Americas and poised for moderate growth — but 2015 blew the roof off moderate,” Brian Sands, vice president of economics with AECOM, said in a released statement. “In theme parks, not only did the two top operators, Disney and Universal, both excel, the North American market as a whole did well, too.”

Disney Hollywood Studios attendance increased to 10.8 million, which was a 5 percent jump, Island of Adventure at Universal had 8.8 visitors, which was an 8 percent improvement and SeaWorld had a 2 percent improvement at nearly 4.8 million visitors in 2015.

Orlando had seven parks make the Top 25 in attendance worldwide, according to the report.

Amusement parks do not release exact attendance figures. The report used a formula to come up with an estimate.

2007, and the Gawker empire has run a number of stories skewering Facebook.

Legal experts say there is nothing illegal — or even unethical — about someone financing a lawsuit. There are entire companies that invest in contingency claims, usually in product liability, personal injury, patent infringement and copyright cases. It is called “litigation financing.”

But a billionaire doing it out of what may be spite? That’s a little different, experts say. (AP)

LOS ANGELES:

Shia LaBeouf launched his latest performance arts project, #TakeMeAnywhere, on Monday, which will see him hitchhiking across the country with fans for a month.

LaBeouf teamed with Nastja Sade Ronkko and Luke Turner for the venture, which includes him tweeting out the GPS coordinates of his location. From there, fans can pick him and his team up, and take them on a journey of their choosing.

The “Transformers” star told Vice that the project was about “making friends” and “finding meaning” in life, according to Time.

On his first destination in Colorado, five fans joined LaBeouf for a free lunch at Oskar Blues, a microbrewery in Lyons, Colo. “He was talking about his upbringing and how he was raised by a single mother,” fan Brandon Glanton told Time.

“To have everyone sitting down there, having lunch with him, it was so cool that he was so receiving. He was more humble than you can ever imagine,” Glanton added. (RTRS)