Nobody buys the line. "Liar!" interjects a man listening to the story, as others join in to denounce the claim. Shifting in his brown flip-flops, Mr. Shen admits he doesn't have any employees or printing orders to go with his business license.

The whole thing is a ruse -- meant to win relocation compensation if Disney comes to town.

Disney fever is sweeping Shanghai, and it has little to do with giddy anticipation of Mickey Mouse and company. It's about cash. Homeowners and businesses in the Shanghai village of Jinjia, where the rumors are focused, expect their properties will be bought up to make way for a Shanghai Disneyland. Residents expect that compensation will be proportional to the size of their houses, and even the number of trees on their property.

So, in a country with a well-known weakness for gambling, people are putting up new homes or adding extra rooms -- sometimes in defiance of local development laws -- for the shot at a payday.

Kang Liqing had never even heard of Disney until a few weeks ago. But upon learning that plans were afoot to develop an amusement park, he rented land and built a small aluminum shed, where he now lives with his wife and two children. He plans to provide temporary housing for construction workers.

"The rumor goes so fast," Mr. Kang says. "We only know it's a big foreign park."

Right now, Disney isn't talking, and so no one knows anything for certain about the plans for a new Magic Kingdom in the Middle Kingdom.

The rumors do have a basis in truth: Disney has participated in talks about a Shanghai park for nearly a decade. An early effort was derailed in 1999 by Disney's move to build its first Chinese park in Hong Kong, which opened in 2005. Talks about two years ago were torpedoed when big projects were frozen amid a Shanghai government corruption scandal.

Quiet Negotiations

In recent months, however, Disney and Shanghai quietly resumed negotiations in hopes that a deal for a targeted 2012 opening can be agreed on. Any deal will ultimately need the blessing of senior leaders in Beijing. Neither China nor Disney has confirmed the Shanghai site, a section of mostly rural land that covers Jinjia and other small villages near the city's international airport.

Disney spokeswoman Leslie Goodman said there is "no agreement and no deal" for a Disney park in Shanghai, and declined to elaborate.

However, two people involved in the process say one plan that has been discussed calls for Disney to hold a minority share in partnership with at least three companies owned by Shanghai's government. Among those companies, according to one person, is Shanghai Media Group, which had no comment. Unresolved questions include Disney's right to hold a nightly fireworks show, dredge a big lake and gain access to Shanghai's 268-mile-per-hour Maglev train, this person says.

In crowded China, such megaprojects entail a costly and thorny process of enticing residents to leave. Forced eviction remains common in China. But compensation is required, and the mere rumor of a development scheme can spark opportunism. When Beijing said in late 2002 it would pay 5,000 residents to move out of an area designated for next month's Summer Olympics, new residents moved in and cheap houses went up almost overnight.

Disney, meanwhile, has battled speculators for decades. Walt Disney himself famously surveyed central Florida in a plane rented under an assumed name, to quietly assemble nearly 30,000 acres of cheap land that became the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando.

In Anaheim, Calif., the company was long tripped up by a local farmer who planted his 56-acre strawberry patch next to Disneyland in 1954, the year before the flagship Disney park opened. Disney finally acquired the land in 1998, at which time local developers estimated its value at $90 million.

Though Disney has an actual interest in Shanghai, the company is constantly dogged by rumors of theme parks in places where it has no plans at all. Vietnam, Dubai, India, Korea, Texas and Branson, Mo., all have been mentioned by bloggers, local developers, passionate Disney fans and the press as possible sites.

A densely wooded village of canals, Jinjia has more frogs than cars, and is one of the few sections of otherwise booming Shanghai with unspoiled countryside. The Shanghai municipal government banned most new construction in Jinjia a few years ago, and newcomers can't register as legal residents. Officials won't say whether the rules relate to Disney specifically, but the effect would minimize relocation and redevelopment costs.

"Strictly Obey Land Legislation," reads a red banner at a gateway into town.

But the message isn't getting through, and in Jinjia, residents figure that a bigger house or business will result in a bigger relocation payment.

Jutting from the back of Jinjia native Chen Xinglong's three-story home is a freshly painted white room with a bright blue roof. Mr. Chen recently took delivery of cement and hundreds of orange bricks that now block his driveway. Yet while he acknowledges that he has been hearing Disney rumors for years -- and "this time, I believe it" -- he claims: "These bricks aren't for a new home, they are for my garden. For a garden I need bricks."

Not everyone is building with the hope of being evicted. In May, another Jinjia resident cleared the small plot she had farmed since 1975. The woman, who gives her surname as Ms. Zhou, says she spent $24,000 erecting a simple 12-room hotel. "I don't want Disney to build here. I want it to build over there," stresses the would-be innkeeper, pointing her finger across a small waterway. Neighbors have hastily constructed garages, fish farms and nurseries.

"We've counted how many trees belong to us," notes one resident. People expect the government will have to pay extra for every tree on redeveloped land, including the hundreds of thousands of camphor and other trees planted in recent years, say people familiar with the project planning.

Market Standout

A whiff of Disney fever has lifted the shares of Shanghai Jielong Industry Group Corp. by more than 90% since late June, making it a standout in an anemic market. The company got its start in 1973 printing food-ration tickets and now makes boxes for Disney toys, but investors are focused on its prime land in the Jinjia area.

Disney talk also explains the $1.4 million asking price for houses in Opal Villa, a neighborhood located adjacent to Jinjia. Sales brochures feature Mickey Mouse-style ears floating above what looks like Disney's Cinderella Castle. Its slogan: "Fairyland in My Dream, Castle of My Wealth."

"It's 10 minutes from the airport and Disney will be right here," says sales representative Zhu Zhijun, motioning to a district map in the sales office. A Mickey Mouse penholder sits on his dark wood desk.

Will effects of downturn hit Disney?

Middle East North Africa Financial Network - Wall Street will be waiting to see whether the nation's current economic woes will hit Walt Disney Co.'s third-quarter results when it reports on Wednesday.

Disney DIS is likely to post gains in per-share profit and sales for the period ended June 30. There should be few, if any, blemishes on even such recession-sensitive businesses as its theme parks.

Analysts polled by FactSet Research are forecasting the Burbank, Calif.-based entertainment giant will report earnings of 61 cents a share on sales of $9.08 billion. That compares with profits of 58 cents a share on sales of $9.05 billion.

But Disney has developed a habit of exceeding expectations over the last several quarters, and could again this time around.

Richard Greenfield of Pali Research said in a recent note to clients that he was raising his third-quarter estimate to 62 cents a share, and his fourth-quarter forecast to 44 cents, both up by a penny.

He also upped his full-year forecast to $2.33 from $2.31 a share. The FactSet estimate is for $2.33 for the full year and 52 cents a share for the fourth quarter.

Greenfield said the company's theme parks may exceed expectations and travel trends were solid for the quarter.

The company's one blemish appears to be the May release of "Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," which didn't fare as well at the box office as was hoped. The film's lackluster performance prompted at least one analyst to shave 2 cents off his estimate.

Disney Channel Airs Muppets Special

Animation Magazine - Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie Bear and the rest of the Muppets gang will be joined by some of the biggest stars with kids and tweens when Disney Channel presents Studio DC: Almost Live next month. Airing on Sunday, Aug. 3 at 8 p.m. (ET/PT), the half-hour musical sketch comedy special will feature Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana), the Jonas Bros. (Camp Rock), Ashley Tisdale (High School Musical), Dylan and Cole Sprouse, Brenda Song and Phill Lewis (The Suite Life of Zack & Cody).

Featuring classic Muppets backstage antics, the special will be hosted by Dylan and Cole Sprouse, with comedy sketches featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, Miley’s country singer father. The junior Cyrus will get to play with the Electric Mayhem Band and Miss Piggy will cast herself as the “Jonas sister” and perform with the famous brothers. Kermit will sing the High School Musical hit single “Bop to the Top” with Ashley Tisdale, then join Miss Piggy and Gonzo in paying a visit to the Tipton Hotel, as seen in the hit series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody.

Created by the Disney-owned Muppets Studio, Studio DC: Almost Live is exec produced by Martin G. Baker.

In a genre where seconds of footage can take weeks to capture, Mr. Fothergill is known for keeping teams in the field -- and executives at bay -- until his people get the shots he sent them for. Now, with help from Disney and some swimming polar bears, the British producer is going after bigger prey.

His rise comes with criticism from some conservationists and fellow filmmakers who say his films gloss over the threats facing wildlife. His response: One way to save a species is to make its story entertaining on screen, rallying public support. "The criticism of 'Planet Earth' is that we wore rose-tinted glasses, but there's no doubt that it awakened people," Mr. Fothergill says.

After years of marginal audiences, wildlife filmmakers are seeing their industry surge. It's being fueled by a vogue in environmentalism and expanding cable and Internet programming. Produced by the BBC and aired in the U.S. on the Discovery Channel in 2007, the 11-part "Planet Earth" series cost about $20 million to make and has since sold more than three million copies on DVD in the U.S., making it the best-selling TV documentary ever. Retail chain Best Buy says its lush, high-definition imagery helped persuade consumers to spring for fancy flat-panel TV sets.

The franchise is expanding. This summer, a line of "Planet Earth" greeting cards hit stores, part of a licensing blitz by the BBC that includes a line of toys coming in September, such as a "Grow-A-World" globe that sprouts grass like a Chia Pet. Plush dolls will come with a kid-friendly DVD -- minus scenes of animal violence. And this month, at concerts in Dallas and Seattle, orchestras played along to footage from a Fothergill-produced documentary about ocean life called "The Blue Planet," a hit series from 2001 that laid the groundwork for "Planet Earth." Mr. Fothergill is pragmatic about the spinoffs: "If you're going to demand the big budgets, the people spending the money should have the liberty to get it back."

The industry's most ambitious effort -- and biggest risk -- is its bid for the big screen. Walt Disney recently announced the launch of a new unit, Disneynature. Its slate of six feature films (with budgets of up to $10 million each) will cover fauna from big cats to flamingos. National Geographic says it's developing up to six wildlife movies for theaters. And among the other studios with animal fare in the pipeline, the Weinstein Company is planning to release a movie about meerkats. The benchmark for big-screen success is 2005's "March of the Penguins." It brought in more than $77 million at the U.S. box office. But another polar feature, "Arctic Tale," sank in theaters last summer, grossing less than $1 million domestically.

Disney is betting that Mr. Fothergill can deliver the goods -- he was hired to produce three of the planned Disneynature films. Mr. Fothergill has spent about 25 of his 48 years in the BBC's Natural History Unit creating television, but has pursued a cinematic style. In his map-lined offices in Bristol, his production team mocks up storyboards for sequences before they are shot, creating a wish list of close-ups and action shots. He commissions surging musical scores and has recruited talent from outside the natural-history ranks. For instance, a cameraman who shot "Pirates of the Caribbean" climbed into a helicopter to capture previously unseen footage of wild hunting dogs cooperating to run down impala. Of the visual pacing, sound mixing and explosive music used to build tension throughout that hunt, Mr. Fothergill says, "That is Hollywood."

That strategy would have been impossible without the BBC's deep pockets. "It's unheard of for wildlife documentary television to have that money and support," says Fred Kaufman, executive producer of the PBS series Nature. He notes that Mr. Fothergill's productions emphasize spectacle over story, but says their success has boosted the industry as a whole.

Mr. Fothergill's first delivery to Disney will be a condensed version of "Planet Earth," scheduled for a U.S. release next April. And he recently dispatched a crew to a West African jungle to build a base camp for a chimpanzee movie that will be five years in the making. The mission: capture the human parallels in a society of chimps. Though chimps have been exhaustively documented, Mr. Fothergill insists the species still has enough star quality to carry a full-length film. It has the makings of a "great soap opera," he says, but one that could pose risks for a Disney film. "The sexual politics, frankly, are quite extraordinary." Mr. Fothergill's contract with Disney gives him a veto over story or marketing angles that aren't scientifically accurate.

Industry veterans say Mr. Fothergill has pushed the field ahead by adopting high-tech tools. A helicopter-mounted Cineflex camera that Los Angeles news crews use to track car chases allowed his teams to capture undisturbed animal behavior from great heights, such as wolves stalking caribou in Canada. Such scenes drew in unexpected fans -- a father recently told Mr. Fothergill his son had "given up" videogames for the "Planet Earth" DVDs.

Because of Mr. Fothergill's record with mainstream audiences, conservationists are putting pressure on him to sound the alarm about human threats to wildlife. In Missoula, Mont., at the International Wildlife Film Festival in May, Mr. Fothergill showed clips from "Planet Earth," explaining how his team captured some of the scenes. A stalking snow leopard, preening birds of paradise and roly polar bear cubs got gasps and smitten sighs from the audience. But then a testy question came from the front row.

Where, a man asked, was the footage of the deforestation, pollution and global warming threatening the species on the screen? In a tone suggesting it wouldn't be the first or last time he answered the question, Mr. Fothergill said "Planet Earth" wasn't aimed at activists -- it was meant to transport everyday viewers out of their living rooms. "Yes, it's escapism," Mr. Fothergill said. "But what's wrong with that?"

Hardy Jones, a filmmaker who is tracking ocean contaminants to find cancer links in marine mammals and humans, says, "You can't sell doom and gloom." But Mr. Fothergill's biggest hits have done a "disservice," he says. "By just showing every glorious piece of nature on the planet, you really mislead people into thinking everything is right and fine."

It would be difficult to skirt foreboding themes in Mr. Fothergill's other current project. He's tackling the poles, where scientists see the effects of global warming playing out. In keeping with the "planet" brand, the coming TV series for the BBC and Discovery Channel will be called "Frozen Planet." (The eight-part series will be delivered in 2011.) Mr. Fothergill says the inspiration for the series came as he hovered in a helicopter, watching a polar bear swimming through sea ice. There's a "moral imperative" to call attention to the poles, he says, but most of the bad news will be shunted to the final installment of "Frozen Planet." Harping on a climate emergency throughout the series would be distracting and predictable, he says.

The "Frozen Planet" story will be told through "characters" on opposite ends of the Earth: polar bears and wolves in the Arctic, and penguins and albatrosses in the Antarctic. Again, Mr. Fothergill aims to put these familiar species in a new light. That will require nailing unprecedented shots (such as penguins feeding underwater on elusive "bait balls" of krill fish) or amping up familiar scenes with new techniques (shooting the clash of elephant seals in super slow motion -- a painstaking technique that paid off in "Planet Earth" with a great white shark chomping a seal in midair.)

Mr. Fothergill's production teams are huge -- "Planet Earth" employed 30 people in Bristol and 60 cameramen in 62 countries. Though he frequently goes on location, he relies on his field crews to bring the money shots home. A big-framed man who has a clumsy way with gear -- "Things break that I touch" -- Mr. Fothergill's strengths lie in big-picture storytelling and logistics. Often he has to play counselor on the other end of a satellite phone. For "Blue Planet," cameraman Rick Rosenthal went hunting in the Azores for a scene he'd glimpsed a year before: flocks of seabirds plunging into the sea to feed. More than one month passed, with the open-water shoot burning up to $4,000 a day, but his boss told him to stay put. "On the 40th day we got it. The scenes were just electric," Mr. Rosenthal says. "If Alastair feels the confidence in you to get it, he'll stay the course."

Mr. Fothergill lives with his wife and two sons in Bristol, a short car trip from a national park called Exmoor, where they spend holidays in a thatched cottage built in the 11th century. The son of a schoolmaster, Mr. Fothergill grew up in London. In high school, a biology teacher helped set Mr. Fothergill on his life path during weekend trips for bird-watching, a lasting passion. He joined the BBC in 1983 and swiftly rose up the ranks, making films with the elder statesman of British natural history, Sir David Attenborough. In 1992 Mr. Fothergill took charge of the Natural History Unit, becoming the youngest person to do so, at age 32. He stepped down after six years to steer a project he'd been nurturing. "We had sold 'Blue Planet.' I just didn't want anyone else to make it," he says.

Though Mr. Fothergill typically operates behind the scenes, he has appeared in some of his shows. For a 2002 special called "Going Ape," Mr. Fothergill and a female co-star set out to survive in an Ivory Coast jungle by emulating a group of chimpanzees they shadowed. Carrying nothing but sleeping bags and hammocks, the pair devoured ants, ducked chimp feces falling from the trees and ran up to 10 miles a day to keep up with the primates. Dehydrated and hungry, they lasted a week. Not included in the TV show: the fit of shaking and malarial fever that landed Mr. Fothergill in a hospital quarantine back home, where his son had to visit him in a bioprotection suit.