Saturday 22 February 2020

Red Sea Astrarium Star Trek ride concept art

Remember back in 2011 when they announced that Star Trek would be a key attraction in the planned Red Sea Astrarium resort in Aqaba, Jordan? Well as far as I can tell that never quite got built. But work was still going on for it as late as 2014, when it was reported Bad Robot were working on an innovative 4D film/ride as part of the attraction. Concept artist Bruno Werneck was part of the team working on that, eventually becoming the art director for the project. He has recently shared some work from the ride on his ArtStation portfolio. Continue below to check it out:

Here we have some familiar Starfleet elements, plus a new shuttlecraft that I would imagine to be setting of the ride from what we see in the artwork here:



Here's the shuttle flying over a futuristic vision Aqaba:


Most of the work though has strong Klingon vibes, taking a lead from the Qo'noS sequence in Into Darkness, which Werneck also worked on (see below). In this first piece you can see that new shuttle again, tailing a Klingon Bird of Prey:


Some new locales are revealed, a Klingon rail station, refinery, and a closer look at those giant skyscrapers:




Plus what is described as a "lava chamber", which from the architecture I was assume to be on Qo'noS too:


Click the links in the descriptions above to get to the original posts, with additional detail images from each piece.

Alas like many a Star Trek attraction, the Jordan project never seemed to make it to reality. A couple of updates on some others:
  • The Spanish Paramount Park project was announced about the same time as the Jordan project, and after some flashy promo seemed to fizzle away. Local press reported a couple of years ago the land for that project has now be reclassified, and so that can be considered dead.
  • The Paramount London resort cut ties with Paramount in 2017, and became the London Resort. But then last year they reconnected with Paramount to supply content to the attraction, while no longer taking the Paramount name. Construction still hasn't begun, but seems to be in planning still, with a promised Starport area is to be themed on the 23rd century, surely to be based on Star Trek.
I'll update on those and other attractions as and when updates come. In the meantime, let's continue to check-out Bruno Werneck's work on Star Trek, who as I mentioned, was part of the team on Into Darkness before developing the ride concepts above. Werneck worked on the chase sequence on Qo'noS, including concept art for the whole sequence, and working on matte paintings of the Klingon mega-structures and the landing site. Werneck has posted lots of artwork from the sequence on his website. Here are a few concept art highlights:







And here's some of the matte paintings used in the final sequence:




You can see a lot more from Werneck's work on the film on his website. And between his website and ArtStation portfolio you can also check out lots of other projects he's worked on, including film, TV, video games, and illustration for, among others, several different Star Wars and Marvel projects.

For a look at related Star Trek work, check out my concept art, Into Darkness, and attractions tags.




No comments:

Find Star Trek comics, toys, statues, and collectibles at TFAW.com!