Still waiting in the wings, the long-promoted but as-yet-unmade proposal to turn the long-vacant Astrodome into a giant indoor movie lot is almost ready for its closeup, says Christine Hall in the Houston Business Journal. Astrodome Studios co-executive directors Elise Hendrix and Cynthia Neely
along with a laundry list of supporters, including “Dazed and Confused†director/writer Richard Linklater, are one month away from presenting a proposal to Harris County that would put a major soundstage and movie production studio into the proclaimed “Eighth Wonder of the World.â€
“We would have absolutely everything a creative agency would need to film a movie,†Hendrix says. “With 140,000 square feet, you wouldn’t have any problem building a city in there if you needed to.â€
But what would an Astrodome movie studio look like, really? To help unimaginative county officials picture the transformation, Astrodome Studios has prepared the dramatic photo-illustration above, along with a series of similarly rich diagrams:
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- Media companies tune into shared workspace [Houston Business Journal]
- A Vision for Transformation [Astrodome Studios]
Images: Astrodome Studios
me likey
Ugh.. implode this thing already..
.
Or give it to the 1836’ers (Dynamo).. they’re pining for a stadium..
Couldn’t Richard Linklater have sprung for a few artist’s conceptions of what the studio would look like instead of something it looks like he used Google Images and MS Paint to throw together five minutes before their presentation?
Slacker…
A fitness center covering the entire circumference of the Astrodome?
Really?
This is the best idea for the Astrodome. I hope the “powers that be” are smart enough to realize that.
Wow! Iam convinced after seeing the dramatic photo-illustration and the series of similarly rich diagrams! If there was an economically viable use of the Dome it would have happened years ago. The problem is there is no Houston area politician who will state the obvious. The Dome will be razed.
They forgot the hotel so the Hollywood types might be tempted to come back and flim here in a self-contained studio – most come once and those who survive the humidity don’t come back. Just ask Elizabeth Taylor who ended up in the emergency room during her last visit. Which was her last visit.
It’s a shame it cannot be used as a sports venue but apparently no one can claim naming rights to what will forever be known as the Astrodome so no one wants it because the naming rights of course are how most of the stadium owners make their first couple of million dollars in profit.
If they can tear down the Shamrock, they can tear down anything. And in this case probably should.
About the only thing that hasn’t been proposed is turning it into the world’s biggest greenhouse. And if anyone does propose it, I will sue. I suggested it first.
Not a bad idea, Matt! Could be a satellite location for A&M Plant Sciences. Or a Med Center operation for marajuana production. Butterflies; the world needs more butterflies. And bees could be raised there, isolated from the africanized interlopers…
Why do people want to raze a huge solid structure that will be usable for a hundred years, just because it’s not fresh out of the packaging clean? It’s our Coliseum you shallow philistines you.
Been to Orlando ever? They got a movie studio there and their humidity isn’t any better than ours is. The reason that a movie company will shoot in Houston is because it makes financial or aesthetic sense to do so.
And since one of America’s export items that the rest of the world actually still wants to buy is entertainment, and since there’s a huge pool of Latino and other ethnicities to draw upon for talent, Houston might actually be a swell place for developing film or TV programs.
When you got an old house, in a river bottom, on your farm, you store hay bales in it, until it falls down or burns down.
Yep, that sounds about right.