- NEXT STOP: Florida East Coast Railroad Company FREE FAMILY EVENT OCTOBER 16-18, 2009 Florida East Coast Railroad Company Decked Out with Holiday Décor, "Snow" and Carolers -

(BLACK PR WIRE) WHO/WHAT: “DISNEY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROL” Train Tour rolls into Miami this week, offering visitors an exclusive 3D sneak peek from the movie as well as a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the making of the movie—with artifacts and character designs housed in real train cars. The fun family event is totally free. For the launch of the attraction, there will be a Ribbon Cutting Celebration with Jack Rapke, Miami native and producer of Disney’s A Christmas Carol, where he will be presented with a Proclamation and be handed the Key to the City of Miami Dade County from the Office of Mayor Alvarez. In attendance will be our hometown mascots, Billy The Marlin & Burnie, local schools/students that have been recognized for their academics to open the attraction.

WHEN/WHERE: Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Friday, October 16th 8:30AM
Operating Schedule Friday, October 16th & Saturday October 17th 9am-7pm, Sunday, October 17th - 9am-4pm
3200 NW 67th Avenue Miami Springs, FL 33122

ABOUT THE TOUR:

Sponsored by HP and Driven by Amtrak, the Train Tour will travel more than 16,000 miles and pass through 36 states. Amidst a winter wonderland with holiday decor and Christmas carolers, visitors will see footage from “Disney’s A Christmas Carol” inside a 48-foot-wide, 2-story, inflatable 3-D theatre which will be erected in each city. Visitors can also check out the cutting-edge technology behind the film, as well as artifacts from the Charles Dickens Museum and interactive games.

Radio Disney will invite kids to enter for a chance to become a Movie Surfer representing their hometown. Each Hometown Movie Surfer will get a chance to appear on Disney Channel by filming their very own Movie Surfer’s segment! Guests will also have a chance to win an HP TouchSmart PC and HP Photosmart wireless printer in every market. This family event is for guests of all ages and is FREE to the public. The train tour is traveling cross-country with stops in 40 cities, culminating in November at New York City’s Grand Central Terminal. A list of cities can be found at Disney.com/christmascaroltraintour.

ABOUT THE MOVIE: “Disney’s A Christmas Carol,” a multi-sensory thrill ride re-envisioned by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Robert Zemeckis, captures the fantastical essence of the classic Dickens tale in a groundbreaking 3D motion picture event. Ebenezer Scrooge (JIM CARREY) begins the Christmas holiday with his usual miserly contempt, barking at his faithful clerk (GARY OLDMAN) and his cheery nephew (COLIN FIRTH). But when the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come take him on an eye-opening journey revealing truths Old Scrooge is reluctant to face, he must open his heart to undo years of ill will before it’s too late. The movie opens nationwide November 6, 2009.

ABOUT JACK RAPKE: JACK RAPKE’s (Producer) The road to president of ImageMovers Digital began when the graduate of NYU film school moved to Los Angeles in 1975 to work in the mailroom of the William Morris Agency. Only four years later, the tenacious Rapke joined Creative Artists Agency (CAA), where he rose to become one of the most powerful agents in Hollywood over the course of the next seventeen years.

During his seven-year tenure as co-chairman of CAA’s motion picture department, Rapke cultivated a high-profile client list that included Jerry Bruckheimer, Ridley Scott, Michael Mann, Harold Ramis, Michael Bay, Terry Gilliam, Bob Gale, Bo Goldman, Steve Kloves, Howard Franklin, Scott Frank, Robert Kamen, John Hughes, Joel Schumacher, Marty Brest, Chris Columbus, Ezra Sacks, and Imagine Entertainment partners Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. Instrumental in building production companies around his clients, it was only a matter of time before he decided to build one of his own with client Robert Zemeckis.

In 1998, Rapke departed CAA to form ImageMovers with Zemeckis and producing partner Steve Starkey. Primarily focused on theatrical motion pictures, the company’s first feature was the critically acclaimed “Cast Away,” directed by Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks. Rapke and partners went on to produce numerous hits including Zemeckis’s thriller “What Lies Beneath” starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer, the Ridley Scott-directed “Matchstick Men” starring Nicolas Cage, “The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio,” starring Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson, and “Last Holiday,” starring Queen Latifah.

After Zemeckis embraced a revolutionary new technology called performance capture in 2004’s “The Polar Express,” and Rapke and partners produced two more films utilizing the technique—2006’s Oscar-nominated “Monster House” and the Zemeckis-directed “Beowulf”—Zemeckis, Starkey and Rapke formed ImageMovers Digital, the first state-of-the-art studio devoted entirely to the new performance capture art form.