China to Build $2 Billion Film Studios at Chongqing
The Chinese government has given the green light to a new film studio to be built in Chongqing. The project will cost close to $2 billion (RMB15 billion) and construction begin from 2017.
The studio will be named to celebrate President Xi Jinping’s “One Belt, One Road” trade outreach initiative, that challenges the U.S.’s seemingly defunct Trans Pacific Partnership.
According to state news agency Xinhua, the new Chongqing studios will also include a theme park and tourist attractions and have tie-ins with gaming and online entertainment. The agency reported the involvement of several foreign partners, but did not name which companies they might be.
China is rapidly expanding its film-making capacity. Dalian Wanda recently gave a soft opening to its massive Wanda Studios Qingdao on the East Coast. The Beijing Film Academy is understood to be planning its own studios at Huairou, near the China Film Group facilities to the North East of the capital. And Bona Film Group says that it too will build studios at Huairou.
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