China’s Wanda Group announced a 50 billion yuan ($8 billion) investment in building a movie studio complex in eastern China that will be the country’s equivalent of Hollywood. The project earned support from Hollywood A-listers, some of whom even attended the announcement in Qingdao, where the complex will be based.
Wang Jianlin, one of the China’s richest businessmen and the owner of Wanda Group, announced the plan on Sunday, nores the Associated Press. Called the Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis, it will not just house 20 studios, but will also have cinemas and a movie museum. It should open by 2015.
“The future of the world’s film industry is in China because we have 1.3 billion people, and we will have the biggest film business in the world by 2018,” Wang said during the press conference, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
A group of A-listers made the trip to china to support Wang’s plan. Producer Harvey Weinstein and actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Nicole Kidman were just a few there. Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences was also there, as was Ewan McGregor, John Travolta, Christoph Waltz and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Several key Hollywood agents also made the trip.
Wanda said that 30 foreign productions would be made there each year, while 100 Chinese films could also be produced there. The real estate mogul has made a name for himself in the film community, having purchased AMC Entertainment last year and recently making a $20 million donation to the Academy’s Los Angeles film museum plans.