Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin plans to build China's Hollywood

Wang Jianlin, a Chinese billionaire, announced he is planning to build an $8 billion film and entertainment industry park in Qingdao.

Jianlin made the announcement on Sunday, at a party surrounded by A-listers, like Leonardo DiCaprio, Ewan McGregor and Nichole Kidman, Businessweek reports.

The Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis is expected to be finished in 2017. The Chinese Hollywood will be fully equipped, with 20 film studios - one will even be capable of filming underwater scenes. There will also be a theme park, yacht center, a wax museum and several restaurants and bars.

Wang said that the plan is to make Qingdao "into a city of global film and television cultural tourism." There is also going to be a large sign built on a hill, a la the "Hollywood" sign.

The 58-year-old billionaire hopes to have "at least a hundred films a year" shot in Qingdao, 30 of which would be foreign films. Executives from Warner Bros., Viacom, Lions Gate Entertainment, Paramount Pictures and Harvey Weinstein of Weinstein Co. were in attendance.

Jianlin is the founder of Dalian Wanda and China's richest man - with a fortune estimated at $14 billion, Fox News notes. Dalian Wanda runs hotels, cinemas and department stores in China, and recently purchased AMC for $2.6 billion.

Jianlin, in an interview, said, "There's no single company in the whole world that has a big-scale production base, and at the same time has screening and distribution channels. Wanda Group is the first one in the world."

image: Wikimedia Commons

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