Motor Homes
by Fleetwood Play a Big Role in Jurassic Park Sequel
Universal Pictures and Amblin
Entertainment turn to Fleetwood RV to build custom,
jungle-roving RV for starring role in The Lost World:
Jurassic Park
Fleetwood
RVs will be anything but lost on viewers of The Lost
World: Jurassic Park, one of this year's most anticipated
movies. In fact, motor homes custom engineered by
Fleetwood are playing an integral role in both the film
and its pre-release publicity.
Fleetwood RV,
the world's leading producer of recreational vehicles,
created for Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertain-ment
the massive “mobile laboratory” playing a key
role in the Lost World plot. The company also recently
designed and produced an attention-grabbing motor
coach—complete with a jungle motif inside and
out—currently touring the country as part of the
teaser campaign to promote the movie's opening.
An RV Built to Take on a T-Rex
Universal
Pictures and Amblin Entertainment asked Fleetwood to
create a custom RV destined to have an encounter with
dinosaurs. “We provided completed vehicles for
Spielberg's special effects crew to customize in ways
only he and his team could imagine,” said Dick
Parks, senior vice president of Fleetwood RV. "We
started with our exclusive Power Platform© I-beam
chassis, because strength and durability were the two top
requirements of the project.”
But any
similarities to a conventional motor home end with the
chassis. Fleetwood's design team set out to create what
will likely become the most famous 60 feet of
recreational vehicle ever to appear on the silver screen.
The company included its patented hydraulic EZ
Glide™ system, which expands the walls of the
vehicle on demand. It added eight-foot ceilings,
super-reinforced siding and removable sections to allow
camera crews to access the perfect angle. Forty-two-inch
military tires were added for an all-terrain look.
“We had to
engineer the back section of the vehicle from the ground
up,” said Steve Pierce, senior product coordinator
for Fleetwood. “I can't describe it without giving
away some exciting aspects of the movie, but let's say
it's a totally new concept in motor home design.”
Pierce
said despite the custom-engineered look of the Lost World
mobile laboratory, many of the features that will impress
moviegoers are actually available in some RVs today. For
example, the slide-out walls have been in trailers for a
decade and on motor homes for nearly four years.
But are
“off-road” motor homes in America's future?
According to Pierce, some of the “futuristic”
amenities of the vehicle - higher ceilings, computer
centers, alternate frame designs and global satellite
positioning systems—are all realistic additions to
the next generation of RVs. "It was intriguing to
see an RV with fat, knobby tires, a jacked-up suspension
and a tough, invincible look,” said Pierce.
“Who knows what ideas will come from this
project?”
Fleetwood,
which invested significant resources to develop the Lost
World vehicle, is using its participation in the movie to
help build recognition of the Fleetwood name and
strengthen its already-leading market position (nearly
one out of every three RVs on the road is a Fleetwood).
“Our
goal is to make Fleetwood RV the first and last name
people think of when they see a recreational
vehicle,” said Dave Wilbert, division marketing
manager for Fleetwood's Motor Home Group. “We've
been able to turn this into a major brand building
opportunity for our company, literally worth tens of
millions of dollars.”
In
addition to the starring role of its vehicle, Fleetwood
is involved in other marketing ventures tied to the
movie. The vehicle appears in national TV commercials of
the movie's other promotional tie-in partners. It also is
being merchandised in various toys sporting the
Fleet-wood RV logo. The company is even playing a key
role in the promotional tour for The Lost World.
“It's
not just knowing about our name, it's about our
reputation for quality and durability. This project is
helping us raise our brand awareness and build a positive
image,” said Wilbert. “Building an RV to take
on some T-Rexs was a challenge we were excited
about.”
When
asked how the vehicle fares in the movie, he would only
offer, “You should have seen the other guy."
The Promotional Tour
To help
promote the opening of The Lost World: Jurassic Park,
Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment again turned
to Fleetwood's creative resources to conceive another
vehicle, this time a 36-foot, slide-out motor home
“gone wild.” The vehicle is currently on a
cross country tour, making stops in major cities across
the United States at high-visibility locations.
The base
design of the Lost World promotional coach was inspired
by the Bounder®, the world's best-selling motor home.
The exterior of the vehicle is decked out with a dramatic
black paint job and jungle graphics, 39-inch military
tires; special black moldings around the front and back
wheel skirts, with The Lost World and Fleetwood RV logos
on the rear and roof of the unit. The one-of-a-kind
interior is complete with cheetah-print lampshades and
sofas, dinosaur memorabilia and, of course, a copy of
Michael Crichton's novel, The Lost World.
RVN
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