1 October 2013
Stars including Nicole Kidman and John Travolta were paid a total of $10m for attending the ceremony of a new film studio complex in China that plans to rival Hollywood.
Nearly 60 million square feet of buildings – the equivalent of 21 Empire State Buildings – will be constructed over the next four years near the popular Chinese beach city of Qingdao.
Costing between $5bn and $8bn to build, the Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis will include a theme park, residential developments, a hospital and the world’s first permanent underwater filming unit, reports UK newspaper, The Telegraph.
Hollywood stars including Nicole Kidman were enticed to cinema magnate Wang Jianlin’s red carpet ceremony with a share of $10m (Eva Rinaldi/Wikimedia)
The project’s mastermind is Wang Jianlin, called China’s richest entrepreneur, who made his money building shopping centres and cinemas and now sits astride the world’s largest cinema empire.
Mr Wang plans to turn out 30 foreign films and 100 Chinese films a year and has already started negotiations with Hollywood’s biggest movie agent businesses to get contracts with actors and actresses, according to The New York Times.
"It is estimated that China’s film box office revenue will surpass North America’s by 2018 and will double it by 2023," Mr Wang said. "That is why I believe the future of the world’s film industry is in China."
