Date Published: 25/03/2010

Embarrassed opposition politicians admit Valcarcel has not lied about Paramount Studios project

Paramount Studios state they have no interest in any spanish projects

2010-03-25

Embarrassed opposition politicians admit Valcarcel has not lied about Paramount Studios project What a stressful day yesterday in the regional parliament. There was fur flying all over the place as opposition politicians laid into the government with glee over the announcement from Paramount studios that they were not considering building a theme park in the region after all.

Such was the degree of intensity in the questioning that the Minister for culture, Pedro Cruz, refused to answer any more questions about Paramount, saying he had already said everything he had to say about the subject.

Looking from the outside, it is hard to understand the degree of criticism the regional government is facing over this.

When Cruz and Valcarcel, the President of the Region came back from Dubai, they announced that discussions had been held with Ruwaad holdings about the possibility of building a theme park here in the Region of Murcia.

They said that a team would be coming in the following week to carry out initial viability studies, and should these prove favourable, a more comprehensive set of studies would follow, concluding in April, about the feasibility, logistics and financing of the project, which would conclude by the end of April if the project was viable or not.

At no point have they ever said the project IS going ahead.

Only the media have ever said that, and they leapt on it like a famished wolf and proclaimed in grossly misleading headlines that this was going ahead and would be the economic saviour of the region, which of course is what we all want to see in times of deep economic crisis.

Much to everyones astonishment, and completely out of the blue, an American executive denied any knowledge of the Murcian project to an EFE journalist, and this was swiftly followed by an announcement from Enrique Munoz, the executive responsible for Paramount Communications in Spain, "«no hay planes ni compromiso alguno de desarrollar un parque de los estudios Paramount o estudios de servicios de producción en territorio español», there is no plan to develop either a theme park or studio complex on the spanish mainland.

Following the heated debate in the Regional Parliament, Valcarcel took members of the opposition parties to his offices and showed them the documentational proof that the region has been receiving very positive messages from those charged with investigating this project and that everything he had said to the press had been completely true.

One of the documents produced is this letter from Hayan Merchant, Executive President of Ruwaad Holdings, who have the brief from paramount to act in their name investigating business development opportunities worldwide.

This letter is on Paramount notepaper

February 23, 2010

Hayan Merchant

Al Attar Business Tower, Floor 23, Sheikh Zayed Road

P.O. Box 124028

Dubai

United Arab Emirates

Dear Mr. Hayan Merchant,

With reference to our discussions on the potential of developing a movie studios theme

park development in Murcia, Spain with RuwaadIMarta, please note that we as

Paramount Pictures I Paramount Licensing are interested in further exploring this

development opportunity with you.

We are excited at the potential development opportunity of having a Paramount Movie

Studios Theme Park Destination in Spain, and hereby express our positive intent to

undertake a conceptual master plan alongside a feasibility being conducted to allow us to

determine the viability of such a project.

Please confirm to us when we can hold more detailed discussions on the subject.

Kind Regards

Michael Bartok.

Executive Vice President

Paramount Pictures

The opposition politicians had very little to say after the meeting other than "«Lo que nos ha enseñado el presidente es la documentación que avala que todas las palabras que ha dicho el Gobierno son realidad», which translates as , yes, well, this is a bit embarrassing to admit after all the fuss weve just made, but every single word the President has said about the Paramount project is true.

Quite what will happen from here is unclear.

Pedro Cruz was adamant that plans were still being discussed and studies undertaken and that everything was proceeding according to plan, but that was before the latest announcement from Enrique Munoz, speaking officially on behalf of Paramount Spain.

Well just have to wait and see.

This, of course, is devastating news for Polaris world management who have just managed to obtain one months grace to negotiate their own insolvency situation. Lucky for them that this Paramount announcement came when it did - one week earlier and the signs of positive movement in the housing market which won them the extra month, may not have happenend.