Giant movie base open for business

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-14 15:16

China Film Group Corporation, the behemoth of China's film industry, has opened its giant digital film production base in Huairou, north Beijing.

The largest of its kind in Asia, the base covers 131 acres and cost 2 billion yuan ($294 million). It provides facilities for almost everything about film production and post-production, such as 16 studios as big as 40,000 sq m, a digital production studio and a prop/costume warehouse.

First projects at the base include Chen Kaige's biopic on the Peking opera master Mei Lanfang and Li Shaohong's TV adaptation of the classic novel A Dream of the Red Chambers (Honglou meng).

The State-owned corporation, which last year revealed plans to list on the stock market, has co-produced and distributed a series of theater hits in recent years. They include last year's domestic box office champion Warlords and John Woo's Red Cliff (pictured) which earned more than 260 million yuan ($38.2 million) within three weeks.