UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOLLYWOOD’S BEHIND-THE-SCENES “STUDIO TOUR” ATTRACTION JOINS HI-DEF REVOLUTION; TRAMS BECOME STATE-OF-THE-ART “MOBILE MOVIE THEATRES” AT THE ENTERTAINMENT CAPITAL OF L.A.

Universal City,California –Universal Studios Hollywood’s marquee attraction will convert itsfleet of trams into mobile movie theatres as The Entertainment Capital of L.A.upgrades its signature, behind-the-scenes ride with state-of-the-art, flat-screen Hi-Definition monitors and digital playback systems, beginning June 2009.  

The new Hi-Def monitors will feature commentary from filmmakers, including StevenSpielberg, Ron Howard and Stephen Sommers, along with insight from suchpersonalities as Al Roker, Nancy O’Dell and Billy Bush and Whoopi Goldberg. Clips from numerous movie and television productions, all corresponding to the sites visited along the Tour route, will add a new dimension to the tour of the backlot sets and facades.

Because the Studio Tour is constantly changing to accommodate film and TV production schedules, a custom Hi-Def playback system has been designed to allow the Studio Guides to instantly select material from the several hundreds of clips created for the world-renowned Studio Tour attraction.

Among the new or newly re-mastered clips included will be HD clips from Universal Pictures’ much anticipated “Land of the Lost” and “Fast & Furious” as well as scenes from the hit TV shows “Desperate Housewives,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “Ghost Whisperer,” which all regularly shoot on the Universal backlot.  Film history buffs will see a clip from Universal Pictures’classic 1925 “The Phantom of the Opera,” completely re-mastered in HD exclusively for Studio Tour guests and screened as trams historic Soundstage 28, which still contains the film’s original sets.

Beginning June 1, “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” will debut in a newly renovated sound stage located on the Universal Studios lot. As Emmy Award-winning host Conan O’Brien moves to California, the show’s state of the art studio will become a featured showpiece of the Studio Tour.

Just over a year after a fire damaged four acres on the world’s largest working movie studio lot, Universal Studios will re-open in mid-summer most of its iconic sets and will unveil innovative shooting locations designed to meet contemporary film production needs.

Beginning in mid-summer, production will also resume on the world- famous Courthouse Square, Brownstone Street and an enhanced New York Street. The new locations to be introduced this year will include a gas station, a firehouse and, most notably, a modern urban cityscape, with glass and steel façade structures that will provide film and TV crews with the opportunity to replicate a modern city street scene in a controlled studio environment. The contemporary cityscape will be the largest modern urban backlot shooting location in Los Angeles. These advanced facilities were constructed to provide ideal shooting conditions for contemporary productions, and were designed with the assistance of leadingfilmmakers and art directors. Additional sets will remain in construction and are planned to open in 2010. The great majority of the studio’s famous standing sets and locations, including the “War of the Worlds” set, Western Streets, European Street, Mexican Street, the Psycho House-Bates Motel, and Desperate Housewives” Wisteria Lane were untouched by the fire and have remained in continuous use for dozens of motion picture and television productions.

Universal Studios Hollywood (http://www.universalstudioshollywood.com/),The Entertainment Capital of L.A., includes a movie-based theme park and Studio Tour, the CityWalk entertainment, shopping and dining complex, the Universal Cinemas and the Gibson Amphitheatre concert and special event venue. The themepark features the groundbreaking attractions “The Simpsons Ride,” “Revenge ofthe Mummy—The Ride,” “Shrek 4-D,” “Jurassic Park—The Ride” and the orld-renowned Studio Tour, which takes guests behind-the-scenes of such landmark TV and movie locations and sets as Steven Spielberg’s “War of theWorlds” and “Desperate Housewives.” Universal CityWalk features 65entertainment-themed restaurants, nightclubs, shops and dynamic entertainmentoptions. The Universal CityWalk Cinemas, which includes California’s largest IMAX venue, features the best movie-going experience in Los Angeles.

Universal Studios Hollywood is a unit of Universal Parks & Resorts, a division of Universal Studios, a part of NBC Universal. NBC Universal is one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, marketing ofentertainment, news, and information to a global audience. Formed in May of 2004 through the combining of NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment, NBC Universal owns andoperates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leadingtelevision stations group, and world-renowned theme parks. NBC Universal is 80% owned by GeneralElectric, with 20% controlled by Vivendi Universal.