ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, May 15, 1996 TAG: 9605150011
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BOTTROP, GERMANY
SOURCE: Associated Press
What's up, Doc? Bugs Bunny is getting a home in Germany, that's what. So are Elmer Fudd and the rest of the Warner Bros. cartoon gang.
Warner is nearing completion of a big theme park just outside Bottrop, bringing Hollywood to Germany's economically troubled steel-making region, the Ruhr Valley.
The Warner Bros. Movie World opens June 30, when actors dressed as the ``wascally wabbit'' and friends will mingle with kids and parents lining up for attractions such as a Wild West street, a Lethal Weapon Roller Coaster and a Looney Tunes Land.
Warner Bros. and a co-investor, the German computer company Nixdorf, have spent more than $256 million on the complex, the only one of its kind in Europe.
With its theme rides and cartoon characters, the 100-acre operation is something like the much larger Disneyland Paris.
Once the motor of German industry, the Ruhr Valley has been sputtering for some time. Coal mining has nearly died out and steel making is also in trouble.
``People have this vision of the Ruhr region being gruesome and unattractive,'' said Kathrin Hartmann, a spokeswoman for Bottrop. ``We hope the movie park can help change that image.''
LENGTH: Short : 35 linesby CNB