China Wanda's Billionaire Wang Jianlin and self declared Shanghaî Disneyland biggest foe opened its $8 billion Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis - or Dong Fang Ying Du - on Saturday. The project is claimed to be the world’s largest studios, and also include a commercial complex covered with giant portraits of Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe and Bruce Lee. There’s also a reclaimed island with luxury hotels, condos, two theaters and a yacht club.
Covering an area equivalent to more than 200 football fields, the 400-acre Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis has been touted as China’s answer to Hollywood. Wang, whose group controls U.S. cinema chain AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc and U.S. studio Legendary Entertainment, promised generous subsidies for film makers but indicated a focus on China’s domestic film market.
“We will boost the Chinese movie industry development,” Wang said at the project’s opening ceremony. “We will also turn Qingdao into a global hub for film,” he said, making no reference to Hollywood in his brief speech.
Years ago, at the 2013 breaking ground event, Wanda had invited Leonardo Di Caprio, Nicole Kidman and John Travolta along with Chinese stars. Last week-end was less glamorous with no red carpet or global superstars at the grand theater, where the one-hour ceremony took place, though hundreds of Chinese film industry representatives attended, as well as Hollywood executives and Chinese government officials.
The reason why is because the Wanda Group has been under tight government scrutiny in recent years, particularly over its high profile overseas investments with the acquisitions of Legendary Entertainment and AMC Theatres.
One of the most interesting part of Oriental Movie Metropolis are the street sets which recreate the Shanghaî of mid last century, to be used of course in film production.
No movie metropolis without huge letters on a hill, like the "Hollywood" letters in L.A, and here too the title can be seen miles around.
The studios’ executive CEO Alvin Fu told Variety that "complex’s largest studios (with a floor area of 3,000m2 or roughly 300,000 square feet) are fully booked through the second half of 2018 and will serve as production base for Chinese epic fantasy “Fengshen Trilogy” and a pair of unnamed Hollywood productions. One of them expects to use the studios’ underwater stage and exterior water tank, the world’s largest".The Studios also include a 10,000 m2 soundstage, claimed to be the world’s largest one, something we can believe easily when seeing the size of it.
One thing is sure, they will make movies there, and in a part two article coming soon i will talk about the luxurious Wanda Vista Qingdao Movie Metropolis Hotel, and you'll see the reason why.
Pictures: copyright Wanda, Forbes, Reuters, DR
Rides! There are also rides!
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