The $1-billion deal to buy Dick Clark Production from the Dalian Wanda Group is dead, but the Chinese conglomerate continues to aim for more entertainment ventures with Hollywood companies. Its latest offer is a 40 percent rebate for projects that would be shot at its new Movie Metropolis in Qingdao.
Giant Studio to Match Hollywood
Movie Metropolis is an $8-billion studio owned by Dalian Wanda. The Chinese conglomerate could afford to offer the hefty rebate to production houses because the venture is bankrolled by the regional government and Wanda’s $750-million development fund spread over five years. The rebate has an $18-million cap for a qualifying movie, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
So far there are two films that are availing of the incentives. These are “Pacific Rim 2” and “Godzilla 2.” The flop movie “The Great Wall,” starring Matt Damon, was shot at the studio, according to Live Mint. Besides the financial incentive, to entice more producers to shoot at Movie Metropolis, Dalian Wanda is marketing the location since the historic port city of Qingdao, located on the eastern coast of China, is a comfortable place to produce entertainment.
Upscale Amenities Included
Besides building the humongous studio, now 30 percent complete, Dalian Wanda is also constructing amenities in the area such as luxury hotels, bars and restaurants, condos, a cinema touted to be the largest in Asia, a convention center, shopping malls, four indoor theme parks, a school and an international medical center.
Movie Metropolis, when completed in 2018, would house 15 soundstages and 11 production workshops. One of the studios is a high-tech structure 6,000 square meters or about the size of an airport hangar. Given its size, it ties with a stage at Pinewood London as the largest film stage in the world.
The studio would also have the biggest outdoor and indoor underwater stages, 221 acres of backlot and 45 soundstages almost twice the size of the largest moviemaking facility in Hollywood, Universal. Dalian Wanda tapped the services of Pinewood Shepperton, a leading studio operator and production services company as is lead consultant for the studio project.