About 40 small business owners who lend their own wizardry to theme parks stand to benefit. "There is a role for us to play, and it will come to us when [Universal's] project ideas are a little more polished," says Toni Brown, applications engineer for Gilderfluke & Co., a seven-employee, $3 million company that designs control equipment for rides.

The details, however, are as secret as the ending of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was before the book, the last in J.K. Rowling's seven-volume series, came out in July. Bill Nassal Sr., whose 135-employee, $30 million Nassal Co. designs faux rocks and other props, had to sign a confidentiality agreement just to talk with Universal. Says Nassal: "We can't say a word about any of this."