You know that game you play with your friends, where you imagine what you would do if you just had gobs and gobs of cash. I'm talking insane amounts of wealth. Would making your own Jurassic Park be on that list? If you answered, "Hell yeah!" then you'll be pleased to learn this is precisely the plan of insanely wealthy person Clive Palmer.
Just as Jurassic Park 3D dominates theaters, io9 reports the Australian mining magnate is in the works on not one, but two dinosaur-themed resorts. Sadly, he didn't play God and dig for fossilized mosquitoes, so his dinos will be life-sized animatronics. Palmer Coolum Resort on the Sunshine Coast, north of Brisbane, Australia will be home to 165 robo-dinos. This includes a T-rex named Jeff and an omeisaurus called Bones. His second resort will be built in central China, and will house another 117 animatronic beasts, with swinging tails, heaving chests, and blinking eyes. Considering the T-rex in Times Square's Toys R' Us has been bending down and roaring at customers for years, you'd think Palmer would demand a little more bang for his buck.
Still, this isn't Palmer's only movie-themed ambition. He's also in the works on Titanic II, which is not a sequel to the epic James Cameron historical drama, but an actual reconstruction of the doomed ship down to its Turkish Baths, smoking room, grand staircase, gymnasium, and levels split into three different classes. While you'd expect Palmer would be counted among the luxury first class, he's reportedly looking forward to traveling in steerage, slumming like Titanic 's Rose did because Cameron taught us that's where all the fun people are. “I will be in third class. I will enjoy it,” he told The Guardian.
There's a curious common theme in these projects. In the titular movies where Jurassic Park and Titanic are focus, a major theme is the danger of man's hubris. And if Palmer were in a movie, he would likely be headed to one of his parks, where robo-dinos have developed self-awareness/taste for human flesh, on Titanic II when disaster strikes hurdling him into a catastrophic climax. In reality, this man with more money than imagination will launch his Titanic II in 2016, following the path of the voyage that proved gruesome in 1912. At least this Titanic will amend some mistakes of the past, while boasting modern innovations. There will be enough lifeboats for all passengers, along with air-conditioning and high-speed internet access.
