China’s richest man plans to spend $8.2 billion (50 billion yuan) to build the country’s version of Hollywood in the northeastern city of Qingdao.
In a glitzy, star-studded red carpet event Sunday, Wang Jianlin said his company, Dalian Wanda Group, will build a state-of-the-art film studio complex in a bid to dominate China’s rapidly growing movie market.
The Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis’s 20 studios will include a permanent underwater studio and a 108,000-square foot stage that Wang said would be the world’s biggest. The facility will also include an Imax research and development center, cinemas and China’s biggest film and celebrity wax museums. The first phase is planned to open in June 2016 and it will be fully operational by June 2017…