Media mogul Wang Jianlin bets on world’s largest movie studios to turn Qingdao into China’s Hollywood
At the Oriental Movie Metropolis in this seaside city, workers are putting finishing touches on the fittings and glitzy lights of the world’s largest movie production studios: a 50-billion yuan (US$7.9 billion), five-year undertaking by Wang Jianlin, once China’s wealthiest businessman.
On a hill overlooking the site, four gigantic Chinese characters read out the studios’ name Dongfang Yingdu, in a nod to Hollywood’s fabled sign in Los Angeles.
Feng Shen, a trilogy based on the classical Chinese myth Fengshen Yanyi, has committed its 3 billion yuan production budget to using half of the 30 sound stages at Oriental for the next two years. As many as six Chinese films have also signed up to use the facility this year.
The mogul, 63, once outlined a vision of owning one in every five movie screens on earth, and had made a series of global acquisitions to realise his dream.
