Subscriber Exclusive: Steve Tatham – From Imagineering to Japan to ‘a major new project’

I got a call from this headhunter and he said, “We have this position in Japan,” and I said, “I don’t think so. I don’t think I’d be interested. I’ve got a family. No.”

He said, “Let’s go have some coffee and talk about it.” I said, “Okay.”

He described the role, and I was like, “Oh, that sounds fun!” It was a long [on-and-off] conversation that lasted about a year, and a year later I was in Japan. It was mind-blowing.

I was hired by USJ Co., which was not even Universal Studios-owned. It was owned by a Japanese company in the same way Tokyo Disneyland is not owned by Disney, [but] owned by the Oriental Land Company. It was a coalition of investors, not theme park people. They started this company when the “asset” was somewhat distressed, because attendance was down. They bought it at what they thought was a bargain, and then they were going to dump some marketing money into it, pump it up, and sell it. That was the plan.

Glenn Gumpel was running this company, and they had a licensing agreement with Universal Creative, but they didn’t have design people. Universal Creative did not dictate what went in that park. They didn’t even have to design it. It’s the same deal Oriental Land Company has with Imagineering. They’re not obligated to use Imagineering as designers. They do, but they don’t have to. They could use somebody else if they wanted to. It would be problematic for everybody, but I don’t think contractually they have to, and in the same way, USJ Co. didn’t have to use Universal Creative.

I went in and I met with Glenn for my job interview, and I asked him about the relationship with Universal Creative, because I was confused. He said, “They’re our friends. We don’t have to work with them.”

So I called Thierry Coup [chief creative officer of Universal Creative]. I knew Thierry because we had worked on the second gate in Paris. He was working on the stunts and I was working on the story. We knew each other, and we became friends.

I called him up and said, “I’ve got this opportunity, but I don’t get what your relationship is with them, and I don’t want to be in the middle of some big mess.”

He said, “We have no relationship with them. I don’t know what they’re doing. Please take that job so you can tell me what’s going on over there!” So I did.

I reported to the chief marketing officer at the time, a guy by the name of Morioka. Morioka-san was running the whole park. Marketing was running it, and they were just trying to build up attendance so they could sell it to some theme park operator, preferably Universal. The park looked great, but you opened the hood and it was a mess. They only cared about how it looked so they could sell it. They weren’t worrying about how it was going to operate for the next 50 years. What I figured out later was, I was in this turf war, because the one area he did not have control of was design.

Universal Creative was still designing, and they had a small design firm that Vernon McGugan was running. He was there in Osaka, and he had just a handful of people. They were sort of like this outpost of Universal Creative. They were all working with vendors, and Universal Creative was kind of overseeing it, but not really. They had some autonomy.

So I’m now hired, and Morioka says, “You’re going to build [Super] Nintendo [World],” and I’m like “Awesome! Let’s go!”

I meet my team and I thought, “You’ve got to be kidding me! I’ve got 15 people! It’s like a sign shop.”

He didn’t know the first thing about theme park design, which is why he hired me. He said, “I need somebody so I can then take over from Universal Creative and have my own team, and build Nintendo, and do all this stuff without them.”

I had lunch with Vernon and I said, “Morioka’s telling me I’m going to build Nintendo.” He goes, “No you’re not. I am. Universal Creative. You have nothing to do with that.”

I said, “Okay, you guys figure all the politics out. I’m not interested. I’m going to build a kick-ass creative team, and you can call me when you need something. We’ll design it.”

I met everyone on the team one-on-one, which is the first thing I always do when I come on to a new team, and I found out some of them had worked there 10, 15 years, because the park was about 15 years old. They were graphic designers, primarily, and they had a few other skills. They worked with vendors, they did Halloween decorations, Christmas decorations. They were starting a new thing called Cool Japan, which was an annual festival focused on the local audience. They did an overlay on Space Fantasy, the spinning coaster. They would do a new 4D film, so they had the Shrek 4D film running there. They had a Sesame Street 4D film that ran during the day, and in the afternoon and evening they’d run Shrek. So they were going to make a new 4D film for that theater.

I went there and I’m like, “Who made all this stuff? Universal Creative didn’t make it. I didn’t make it. Who made it?” Well, they went out to ad agencies and made it, and it was all terrible. So I had to weasel my way in there and say to marketing, “You know, I can help you make this better.” Not like, “I want to do this,” but “I can help you make this better.”

It was an ongoing struggle to figure out the relationship between Universal Creative, marketing, and my team. I ended up growing my team from 15 to 55 people. I’m very big on story, so I had five writers. I had a game designer, I had architects, I had producers. They didn’t have a single writer or producer when I got there. All of a sudden, I’m bigger than the local Universal Creative team. It took four years, and it got better each year.

By now Universal had bought the company, so now I’m in. We’re a part of Universal. Then Thierry called me up and said, “We want you to come to Orlando and lead the creative on a major new project.”

I said, “Are you kidding me? I’ll be there tomorrow! We’re a day ahead. I’ll be there today!” I was like, “This is the best job. I’m overwhelmed. I can’t believe you want me to do that. This is the best job in the world, in our business.”

I ran home and told my family, “We’re going to go to Orlando. I’ve got this amazing opportunity!”

My daughter was about to go into her Senior year. Japan is her home. She said, “I’m not leaving.” My son said, “I was going to take a gap year. I’m not going to go off to Orlando. I’m going to college.” I now have to choose between that last year with my family or going to Orlando myself.

I had a meeting with Mark Woodbury. I didn’t really know him that well, and Thierry’s like, “You need to get to know Mark.” So I meet with Mark, and between the time I talked to Thierry and I’m doing cartwheels, and the time I talk to Mark, I thought, “I don’t think I can do this.”

I met with Mark and put a positive face on it, or so I thought. Thierry called me up and said, “What are you doing? Mark says you don’t want to do this.” I said, “I didn’t say that.” He said, “You acted like that.” And I said, “Well, Thierry, my family. I had to choose. So I chose my family.”

I don’t not regret it. We had the best year in Japan, all together. My son had the year off. He just went around and explored Japan. My daughter had her Senior year, and she had an awesome year. She ended up getting into an Ivy League college. Everything was going beautifully.

When the year was over, I thought, “Now what am I going to do? Universal owns USJ Co. My team doesn’t really make sense, the way it’s structured. The marketing guy I used to report to went off and started his own company, and a bunch of the marketing people left.”

J.L. Bonnier is now the CEO, and Glenn left with wheelbarrows full of money, because he sold it to Universal. J.L. is now in charge, and I reported directly to him. I said, “My team doesn’t make sense. We’ve got to get rid of it. We’ve got to move people to either Universal Creative, to Operations, or to live entertainment, where they can do live shows. We have to divide up my team.”

He said, “Well, what are you going to do?” I said, “I don’t know.” He said, “Figure out what you’re going to do first, then we’ll figure out what everyone else is going to do.”

Then, Thierry called me up again and said, “How about now?”

It’s a year later. I go, “What?” He goes, “How about now? I still want you to come. I know your year is up. I want you to come work on this major new project.” I said, “As what?” He says, “Same role. Overall Creative.”

You never get a second chance in life like this. I said, “Absolutely, 100 percent! I’ll be there!” And so I did.

We divided my team up. Some of them went to Universal Creative, some went to Operations, some went to live entertainment, and I went to Orlando. My son went to college, my daughter went off to Columbia, and my wife and I are here in Orlando. Everything was going great.