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Blogger Wants To Produce A Cirque du Soleil-like Portal Stage Show In Vegas, Needs $25 Million

The Cake Is A Lie

A blogger named Gordon Knott has a really amazing idea. He’d like to put together a live stage show based on the video game Portal. He sees it happening in the style of Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas and would have an initial budget of $25 million. There’s just one problem – he doesn’t have $25 million. 

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For the record, Knott is also open to this idea taking form in Universal Studios or Disney, too. Here’s how he described the show on his blog, “A theme park style stage show featuring characters and situations from the video game PORTAL and PORTAL 2. The game features portals, Chell, robots, GLaDOS, amazing stunts and possibly cake. Similar to ‘Cirque du Soleil,’ only enjoyable.”

Hey, I find Cirque enjoyable! But I digress, Portal is infinitely cooler. Here’s the breakdown:

7 similar looking female stunt performers / traceurs / acrobats.
Several circus cannons
Trapdoors
Trampolines
Bungee ropes
Mechanically controlled set.
360 degree experience – portals appear all over the auditorium.
Animatronic GLaDOS
Portal lighting/special effects inc smoke, mirrors and holograms.
Script (prequel to PORTAL 1?) by Ricky Gervais
Voice acting by Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant and/or Karl Pilkington.
Music by Daft Punk.

Cameo apperance by Gordan Freeman?

A fan of The Ricky Gervais Show, huh? Knott says each show will only last around 25 minutes in order to get more people in and out each day and he guesses this will cost around $25 million to get up and running. “This is a one off fee to develop and build the first set. After that we can replicate it at theme parks around the world for a fraction of the price,” he writes. He hopes to break even after two years with the right merchandising and for an idea of what this all would actually looks like, Knott references the fantastic Portal fan film, Portal: No Escape.

Is Knott starting a Kickstarter for his brilliant idea? No, he’s just putting it out there. And hey, maybe by us putting it out there he might find a backer! You never know. Perhaps that Aperture Science company wants in.

Yes, it’s a pipe dream but a really neat one if you ask me. I would add that the audience should be promised cake at the end of the show but must exit through dirty tunnels in order to find it. Would you pay money to attend?

(via reddit)

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Author
Jill Pantozzi
Jill Pantozzi is a pop-culture journalist and host who writes about all things nerdy and beyond! She’s Editor in Chief of the geek girl culture site The Mary Sue (Abrams Media Network), and hosts her own blog “Has Boobs, Reads Comics” (TheNerdyBird.com). She co-hosts the Crazy Sexy Geeks podcast along with superhero historian Alan Kistler, contributed to a book of essays titled “Chicks Read Comics,” (Mad Norwegian Press) and had her first comic book story in the IDW anthology, “Womanthology.” In 2012, she was featured on National Geographic’s "Comic Store Heroes," a documentary on the lives of comic book fans and the following year she was one of many Batman fans profiled in the documentary, "Legends of the Knight."

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