The Ride of Their Lives : Theme Park Design Team Seeks to Expand Its Empire

In the late 1970s, Gary Goddard, then a 24-year-old fledgling screenwriter, talked his way into an office on the Paramount Pictures lot with an idea for a motion picture retelling the story of the Ten Commandments in a space-age setting.

The movie was never made, but that didn’t stop Goddard. He went on to write other screenplays, including “Tarzan, the Ape Man,” the Bo Derek vehicle. Then one day Goddard got a call from his former employer, Walt Disney Co., asking him to come back. Plucky as ever, he said he’d return if they raised his salary to $3,000 a week from the $300 a week he was making when he left. Disney said yes.

Now Goddard will need all the moxie that has served him so well in the past to pull off his newest challenge: turning his theme park design firm, Landmark Entertainment Group, into a broad-based entertainment company.

Goddard and fellow Disney alum Tony Christopher formed Landmark in 1980 with just $5,000 between them. For the last 16 years, the North Hollywood-based firm has shaken the Disney-dominated theme park business with its designs for such high-profile attractions as Universal Studios’ Jurassic Park: The Ride, E.T. Adventure and Terminator 2/3D, as well as Caesars Magical Empire in Las Vegas.

Landmark’s latest goal might seem lofty, but consider who its newest partners are: pop star Michael Jackson and a billionaire Saudi prince BusinessWeek magazine dubbed “one of the world’s most powerful investors.”

Last month, Kingdom Entertainment, a company co-owned by Jackson and Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, said it had purchased a 50% stake in Landmark. The investment--totaling about $50 million--gives Landmark “a firm foundation for major expansion plans that will take them into every area of the entertainment industry,” a news release proclaimed.

That announcement was soon followed by another deal, initiated by Kingdom, for Landmark to team up with engineering giant Parsons Corp. in offering a full range of theme park design and construction services. Though viewed largely as a marketing contrivance, the joint venture could give Landmark a formidable advantage when competing for contracts.

Goddard hopes the two developments catapult Landmark into a class by itself among independent theme park design firms.

Or it might prove that Goddard has finally bitten off more than he can chew.

Either way, Landmark has a huge job ahead. The firm has so far made its mark doing projects for others on a fee-for-service basis, with its annual revenue swinging from less than $30 million one year to as much as $60 million another, and back again.

“Gary has always been on the brink of bankruptcy,” said a former Landmark executive. “The company has lurched from being flush with cash to massive layoffs.”

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That kind of roller-coaster ride is common in the theme park business, where firms go from being the industry darling one moment to near disaster the next. But some industry insiders also chide Landmark for presenting dazzling design concepts and models, then sometimes failing to implement projects efficiently and within budget.

Goddard “fancies himself the new Disney,” said one industry veteran. “He’s a superb marketer and a damn good showman. But you better watch out or he’ll build you a $600-million thing.”

With Kingdom’s cash in its pocket, Landmark plans to not only build theme parks for others, but to take equity stakes in some of the entertainment venues it creates. At the same time, the company hopes to build a studio operation that regularly churns out movies, television shows and theatrical events.

While this strategy carries the potential for far greater financial rewards, the risks are enormous. The types of projects Landmark wants to own require large investments upfront, and the failure rate is treacherously high.

Goddard’s “neck is out a mile on this,” said Bob Rogers, chairman of BRC Imagination Arts, a rival themed-entertainment design firm.

“He’s taken a big dare. It will be a challenge to see if they can juggle all these things at once.”

Yet Goddard and Christopher see the Kingdom deal as their chance to finally have what they’ve wanted all along: freedom to concentrate on the creative process. They hope to have a new chief executive installed by the end of the year.

“I think there are people out there who can run the company better than we can today,” Goddard said, “which will free us up to write and direct and produce, which is what we do best.”

Indeed, the pair became theme park specialists more by accident than design. When they formed Landmark, they intended to produce filmed and live entertainment, but they soon began receiving calls from companies asking them to create themed attractions.

“Disney was doing theme parks, but everyone else was doing ride parks,” Goddard recalled. “We brought this expertise together almost unknowingly, to service an industry that was just beginning to be born.”

The turning point for the company came when a live Conan show it produced for MCA/Universal made even Disney take notice. Landmark’s reputation grew, and the company landed contracts from Japan to Australia to do everything from conceiving a theme to overseeing construction.

That Landmark has been involved in such big-ticket rides as Jurassic Park from their earliest stages is “a testament to Gary,” said David Codiga, executive vice president of planning and development at MCA’s recreation group.

“Gary Goddard and Landmark are very good at high-intensity, high-impact thrill attractions.”

Landmark has also scored with a few theatrical productions, including a revival of “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Tru.”

But Landmark’s efforts to break into other markets such as TV remained sporadic and mostly unsuccessful, while Goddard and Christopher increasingly saw their directing careers taking a back seat to managing the business.

So about three years ago, they decided to find a partner. Discussions were held with Merv Griffin, and Landmark was close at one point to a deal with video game giant Sega.

The call from Prince Alwaleed came a year ago, after he’d heard about a Landmark Oz-themed project in Kansas.

The prince, a nephew of Saudi King Fahd, is reported to have a net worth of $10 billion and is a major investor in Citicorp, Euro Disney, Saks Fifth Avenue and the Four Seasons-Regent hotel group. In announcing the formation of Kingdom Entertainment in March, he and Jackson said they’d pursue a range of show business activities, including animation, theme parks, television, motion pictures and multimedia.

Landmark and Kingdom quickly came to terms, but the deal took months to finalize largely because Landmark had to formulate a long-term business plan--something it had never done before.

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With so much at stake, Goddard and Christopher are well aware that the seat-of-their-pants style of the past must now change.

So far, they seem to be taking a measured approach to their planned expansion. They hope to produce one motion picture next year, eventually working up to about four a year. And for its launch into TV, Landmark has taken a more conservative route by developing two series with a partner, Sony Pictures Entertainment.

What’s more, Landmark’s own themed-entertainment projects will be small in scope, Goddard said, and won’t directly compete with big customers such as MCA/Universal and Six Flags Corp.

Still, Landmark is determined to remain on the cutting edge of new trends in themed entertainment. That was evident with the announcement earlier this month that Landmark would design “cybercafes” for Apple Computer. A new take on the themed restaurant craze, the Apple Cafe chain will offer customers Internet surfing, videoconferencing and trendy food under one roof.

That Landmark was the company that Apple chose to implement the idea isn’t surprising. Yet if Landmark is to make good on its dream, the company will need more than imagination and a good shtick; it will also require a keen business sense, financial discipline and a lot of luck.

Can Landmark pull it off? No one is counting it out.

“I’d always bet on Gary,” said BRC’s Rogers. “The guy has more lives than a bag of cats.”