Gentings Suing Fox & Disney For Pulling Out Of 20th Century Fox World
While the attention on Disney purchasing 21st Century Fox has generally been on the TV and Movie side of the business, there has been another major project under threat. 20th Century Fox World is a theme park currently under construction in near the city of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
The theme park was set to feature characters from Fox franchises like “Ice Age,” “Rio,” and “Planet of the Apes”, “Night at the Museum”, “Aliens” and the “Predator”.
Building work started in 2013 and was set to open in 2018, but the opening date has been pushed pack to late 2019.
However Gentings Malaysia have gone to court as they accuse Fox of trying to back out of the deal ahead of the Disney purchase. They state they’ve already spent $750 million on the park, but its running years behind schedule.
“Disney wanted no association with a gaming company like GENM due to Disney’s ‘family-friendly’ brand strategy,” the suit alleges. Canceling the project, the suit alleges, would generate a windfall of accelerated payments to Fox and “protect Disney’s existing parks from increased competition and ‘protect’ its ‘family-friendly’ brand.”
The stock of the Only World Group Holdings group plunged 13% in early trade on Tuesday on news that Genting Malaysia is suing Walt Disney Co and Twenty-First Century Fox Inc for more than $1billion.
This isn’t the only Fox themed theme park being affected by the Disney buyout, earlier this year on April 30th, 2018, a theme park in Dubai was delayed until 2020.
Gentings is claiming that Fox has withheld approvals for various elements of the park, or withdrew approvals that had already been granted. The suit says Genting’s designers were forced to recreate the “Ice Age” characters from scratch because Fox failed to provide digital assets for them. Plus Fox refused to send a letter of support to the estate of Charlton Heston for rights to clips from “Planets Of The Apes”.
Fox apparently issues a notice of default, requiring the developer to open the park within 30 days, which would be an impossible target to meet.
Expect more details on this lawsuit to come soon.
Source – Variety