
It looks like the Bay Area is going to be getting a new film studio. In Oakland. Take that San Francisco. The people behind the new studio? The Wayans brothers-- Keenan Ivory, Damon, Shawn, Marlon, and Tito-- the auteurs behind "In Living Color," Scary Movie and White Chicks. On Tuesday, an Oakland City Council committee unanimously approved a preliminary plan to move their production facilities to the old Oakland Army Base. If the City Council approves the plan, the brothers have a year to put together an agreement. So far, the plan calls for retail stores, a 30-acre film production studio with offices and a 10-acre back lot for production. Oh, and a 30-acre theme park with a hotel. Yes, we said an amusement park.
According to the plans, the brothers want to build an amusement park adjacent to the studio. The park will be like "Universal Studios in Los Angeles but with a hip, urban atmosphere reflected in the Wayans brothers' comedies." And yes, the mind boggles. The Homey the Clown Funland Park? Fly Girls of the Caribbean? The White Chicks Nightclub Ride featuring an animatronic Lindsey Lohan getting into a cat fight with animatronic Simpson sisters while an animatronic Paris Hilton does blow in the bathroom? Either way, we can hardly wait.



Excepting for the fact that I have no idea how the amusement park thing is going to work and their description doesn't really provide any guidance, I'm beaming with hometown pride on this one. Well, to the extent that a a movie studio can inspire pride, anyway. I think it's pretty cool that Oakland will get a studio. A not insignificant amount of movie filming already occurs on the bright side of the bay.