28 June, Nanjing, saw the opening ceremony of the Huayi Brothers film village project. Founded in 1994, the Huayi Brothers Media Corp. is a Beijing based entertainment and media conglomerate and in 2014 it was China’s seventh-largest film distributer.
The Huayi Brothers are in the process of constructing a village in Nanjing’s Jiangning district, for the primary purpose of making period films.
The Nanjing film area will cover a total of 517 acres, of which the village shall occupy 269 acres. Huayi brother Wang Zhongjun expressed his strong interest in Nanjing by saying, “As the capital of six dynasties, this city gathers the aura between heaven and earth, beautiful mountains, rivers and talented people. With its imperial colour purple and ancient rhythm, Nanjing is a very attractive city. Nanjing is the very story of the city”.
Relevant leaders and guests attended the ceremony as well as domestic A list actor Zhejiang Changsheng, Television Production Co., Ltd. General Manager Zhang Guoli and famous director Feng Xiaogang.
In addition to the construction of the film and television village plus supporting projects, the area will also include the Huayi Star Art Hotel, artist village and a bed and breakfast. When it comes to Junlin, Jiangnan District, Zhang Guoli stressed that the district will not only be restored but that “Kangxi” scenery will also be maintained. It has been reported that should the village have sufficient Ming and Qing flavour, director Feng Xiaogang will look to shoot his upcoming “Fang China” in Nanjing.
The town is expected to attract three million visitors per year, as the core of the Qinhuai wetland culture area will drive the entire area’s tourism consumption, and also promote the development of cultural industries.
Elsewhere, Wang Jianlin, China’s richest man by some counts, is building an Oriental Movie Metropolis in Qingdao; with 500 hectares of movie wonderland, it is being considered the “Hollywood of the East”. When completed in August 2018, the metropolis will have available movie theaters, convention center, shopping mall, resort hotels, indoor theme parks, marina, international schools and an international hospital.
In addition, the Metropolis will have its own international film festival and “will be one of the largest and most technologically advanced feature-film-production facilities in the world, encompassing 30 sound stages; an enormous, temperature-controlled underwater stage; a green-screen-equipped outdoor stage that’s still larger, at 56,000 square feet; a permanent facsimile of a New York City street; and much more”, according to the South China Morning Post.
In China’s southern Hainan, the Haikou movie town has also been constructed. A joint project between Feng Xiaogang and the Huayi brothers, it was also created as a movie and television filming area and a tourist attraction. The site is 1,400 acres and its buildings date back to 1942. With China’s sensational appetite for film and television and an industry that is growing at a rapid rate, various other movie villages have sprung up in China in recent years and there seems to be no slowing down.
