RIDE OF A LIFETIME REDESIGNED TRAM TOUR HAS UNIVERSAL APPEAL.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

One of the challenges folks in charge of revamping the tram tour at Universal Studios Hollywood had was what to do about Bruce.

The great white shark from the 1975 hit ``Jaws'' had been ``attacking'' an unfortunate wooden fisherman (and tour participants) for more than 20 years. But now the studio, tired of trying to out-thrill major amusement parks, had decided to go back to what they knew best - the art of moviemaking - and an ultra phony mechanical fish just didn't looked like something anybody would consider an example of cinematic magic.

Or did it? Suppose, with the use of newly installed high-tech video and DVD equipment, you could show people a scary scene from ``Jaws'' immediately after their encounter with the mechanical big mouth? Before your eyes, the clunky reality of Bruce is transformed into movie wizardry. The implied message: Look how we can turn wires, plastic, etc. into the spectacular.

``The shark in the movie wasn't any more sophisticated than the one we have out on the tour,'' said John Murdy, creative director for the tour, and the man primarily responsible for its revamping. And we've got (`Jaws' director) Steven Spielberg talking about how it never worked. We've got outtakes of the shark malfunctioning.

``The story is how a great filmmaker was able to overcome it and use it as a positive, using the camera as a shark and making the audience afraid of something they don't get to see. We're tying things back into moviemaking.''

For the past two years, Murdy and his team have taken a close look at every aspect of the studio tour. They concluded that any park can offer roller coasters, food and souvenir shops, but guest surveys indicated that Universal was getting the most out of the park's most marketable commodity. What other attraction, after all, actually takes its visitors onto a working movie studio?

``In the past we've added theme park-type gags and attractions to the tour that didn't have a lot to do with moviemaking,'' said Murdy. ``The overall job is to put the focus back on the moviemaking experience and the movies we've made to make this our marquee attraction.''

Thanks to a ton of research into the Universal archives and the installation of video monitors in trams giving tour guides access to hundreds of DVD clips. Spielberg is a part of every tour. So is director Ron Howard (``Apollo 13'') and actor Jason Alexander (of ``Seinfeld'' fame), all of whom had memorable experiences on the lot. Even while waiting in line, guests can study the Universe of Stars, colorful boards with built-in video displays featuring movie stars from all film genres (Tom Hanks, Goldie Hawn, Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro) and highlighting the movies they've made for Universal.

Studio archivist Jan-Christopher Horak went over the original scripted tour (last refined in the 1980s), corrected several inaccuracies. He also interviewed Carla Laemmle - the oldest living relative of former studio founder Carl Laemmle - about her recollections of working on the lot. Carla Laemmle had appeared in both the 1931 ``Dracula'' and in the 1925 version of ``The Phantom of the Opera.''

``They did some polling,'' said Horak. ``Even after going on the tour, a lot of the people who had gone to the park didn't know that films were still being made here or that they had been made for as long as they have.''

Now, anybody who leaves the tour with that kind of ignorance hasn't been paying attention. As the tram heads down the hill from the theme park to the studio lot, the first thing guests will see are a number of movie posters from Universal, dating from the silent era to the present.

With such features as Courthouse Square, Little Europe and New York Street, the Universal lot itself remains as much a star of the tourist attraction as the rides. Film clips on the tour will now show guests how a street they are passing has been used in movies from three different decades. Courthouse Square, for example, was part of ``To Kill a Mockingbird'' and the ``Back to the Future'' movies and will be seen once again - doubling for Beverly Hills - in the upcoming film version of ``Charlie's Angels.''

The lot was a veritable playing ground for legendary director Alfred Hitchcock who, after 1955, filmed parts of many of his classics there. The Bates Motel, from his 1960 classic ``Psycho,'' remains another tour landmark.

Tour stops can change depending on what project is currently shooting or has recently concluded. Recent visitors will get a peek at the town of Whoville constructed for Ron Howard's upcoming holiday release ``Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas,'' starring Jim Carrey. Four times a year, video clips will be updated to keep the coming attractions current. And one of the tour's final clips will be a trailer for an upcoming Universal movie - for ``Grinch'' or ``The Nutty Professor II.''

There are new attractions as well, most notably Curse of the Mummy's Tomb and a new demonstration of weather special effects. Inspired by the 1999 summer blockbuster ``The Mummy,'' the curse plunges visitors into the sacred temple of Hamunaptra (it's the former site of the ice tunnel and later Dante's Peak on previous tours), where a bunch of flesh-devouring scarabs attack the tram. The King Kong attraction, one of the tour's most popular, now takes place inside a sound stage.

New features mean new blood - a new crop of Universal Studios tour guides, who must audition and turn themselves into walking encyclopedias of Universal lore before they're ever permitted to grab the microphone and plunge their guests into cinematic peril. Tour administrators have hired 30 new guides while retraining the existing corp of 150 guides in the new routines.

``It's a much more complicated tour now,'' said Murdy, who was a tour guide 12 years ago. ``In addition to the tour, they have to work the DVD. They're their own stage manager. I don't think I could give this tour now, and I wrote the damn thing.''

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6 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) On the cover: Snow falls in 80-degree temperatures as part of a new feature on Universal Studios' backlot tram tour.

(2 -- color) Whoville, the set for an upcoming Jim Carrey film, is one stop on the tour ...

(3 -- color) ... while Mother Bates peers at riders from the ``Psycho'' house.

(4 -- 5 -- color) Visitors enter the temple of Hamunaptra in the new Curse of the Mummy's Tomb attraction, which was inspired by the 1999 summer special-effects blockbuster ``The Mummy,'' right.

David Crane/Staff Photographer

(6 -- color) Creative director John Murdy: ``The overall job is to put the focus back on the moviemaking experience and the movies we've made to make this our marquee attraction.''

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer