The Crystal Maze

The original Ocean Zone was gorgeous - wasn't too impressed when the turned it into a wreck for the last couple of series. The games were better than Industrial IMO and as Jon said I'm sure it could be incorporated without the need for the games in the flooded rooms.

IF TV series come about would the company reject any non UK based station?

I think if they reinvent The Crystal Maze for the 21st Century, because it would need music beds and probably a more detailed set to make it sit right for TV today. If they get it right Zodiak would take rights money for it. I assume though both Heyworth and Zodiak would share that though. It would be interesting to know exactly what the rights situation is.

People going on about TV series - please remember a studio which is used to film a TV series is very different to a room which happens to contain games that could be used on a TV series. Besides the basics, such as lighting and sound, there's also the big question about camera positions. Unless they design the arena to be TV friendly (which will massively increase the costs), there's little chance of this being used to film a TV series.

Yeah, for not that much money, you could make 15 minute "highlight" videos for teams to download after based on GoPro's and prosumer grade kit, but this will not make good broadcast TV.

I think the only chance of this becoming a new TV series is if it's massively popular, and a production company is then willing to build a full size TV maze and make a new series on that.

I'm inclined to agree with that last paragraph, I think the success of the kickstarter and the publicity around it shows the appetite is still there. A reinvented Crystal Maze would I'd have thought make its money back even if the series flops as the initial interest would ensure high ratings look at TFI Friday and I think fondness of TCM is probably so much greater.

So if you know you're going to make your money back, and potentially it could be an international hit it seems a no brainer.

Is there a confirmed location for this maze?

I agree on all counts - there is no chance whatsoever of this project's maze being used on TV.

I think the other thing to remember is this projects Maze will be copying the 1990s version so even of it turns out to be an exact replica The Crystal Maze on TV today would need to be a lot more detailed and each set would need to be even more emersive. The Crystal Dome set looks very dated now.

The only thing is (except for Futuristic) every zone has/had a water room with a game

Chatsworth were so careless lightly chucking away the huge audiences of both Treasure Hunt and later Crystal Maze. That sort of philosophy just wouldn't happen today.

What do you mean?

Explain, Rob? I'd put the end down to both series starting to get tired, and a change in presenting roles which didn't quite spark.

The decision to finish Treasure Hunt was Channel 4's. To be fair, whilst audiences were still good, the show did feel towards the end that it lost something, particularly as Annika Rice had left, and replaced by Annabelle Croft, who was, lets say 'marmite' in her 6th form jolly hockey sticks style of sky running.
Kenneth at times was visibly exasperated at her inability to hear and carry out the instructions from the contestants in the studio.

Plus, Chatsworth had one eye on making a lucrative commission from Thames in the form of The Interceptor.

One slight irony, about 10 years later and the original French producers, Adventure Line, had taken the Treasure Hunt format and updated it. Le Carte Aux Tresors (The Treasure Map) had the contestants in a head to head race, in a similar idea, where they had to solve clues and get to the treasure first. How? In what some would argue was overuse of Helicopters. Both contestants, and the host, each had one. Plus the communications helicopter had a gyroscope camera on the front to film the other three. Pity that never made it over here as the successor to Treasure Hunt.

Here's the season finale from 2005 - https://youtu.be/PvzpWKw-ZEs Note - it's 2 hours long, and obviously in French.

Crystal Maze, almost the same problem. You could argue that the change from Industrial to Ocean was an attempt to spark new life into the show, towards the end it sometimes felt it was the same game from a previous series, put into a new zone and hope no-one spotted the difference.

Again, like Treasure Hunt, Richard O'Brien wanted out, and in came Ed Tudor Pole, which in almost a rerun of Croft from T.H, polarized the audience. After Richards style of manic sarcastic presentation, ETP had to do things differently, but it didn't seem right - not his fault, blame the casting producer, but you wanted sometimes where he was doing a laboured in-challenge aside to the camera, to hear the sound of a harmonica in the distance.

Shame we never saw the fruits of pilot done after The Crystal Maze finished. It's name 'The Magic Carnival' does sound intriguing, and more visually spectacular than any of the zones in the Maze.