A Chinese tycoon with the biggest cinema chain in the world publicised his new movie metropolis with a multi-million dollar A-list party.
If Leonardo DiCaprio, Nicole Kidman and Catherine Zeta-Jones were bemused to find themselves on a red carpet in the Chinese city of Qingdao, surrounded by security guards dressed up as soldiers, perhaps they should get used to it. Because the world has a new movie mogul, and the Samuel Goldwyn of our age is Chinese: a former People’s Liberation Army officer with more money than Rupert Murdoch.
Wang Jianlin, a wiry 58 year-old, became China’s richest man by building mammoth shopping centres, cinemas, office blocks and hotels. But now he wants to conquer Hollywood, and few would bet against him.
On Sunday, he threw his coming-out party, bizarre even by the delightfully tacky standards of other Chinese galas, which saw Hollywood’s finest dutifully parade down a red carpet at the site of Qingdao’s beer festival, before being driven by golf buggy back to their hotel suites. “It is the beginning of a new era,” said John Travolta, adding that Hollywood needs cash, and China does seem to have a lot of it. “I brought my family over and I want to taste Tsingtao beer,” he said.
Mr Wang paid pounds 10 million to attract an A-list roster of stars to Qingdao, flying them by private jet and closing down one of his five-star hotels, the 348-room Le Meridien, so that they could take over its 31 suites. Mr Wang, who is the largest cinema magnate in the world, with 6,000 screens across Asia and the United States, is already so powerful that executives from all the major Hollywood talent agencies and top studios also flew out.
“It is my second time over here,” smiled Catherine Zeta-Jones, according to the local newspaper. “I love it all. I am hoping to come to Qingdao to make a Chinese movie.”
Foreign Talent Agency – Provides Foreign Models, Actors, Host, Dancers and A&R Talent in China.外国人才中介机构 – 提供外籍模特，演员，主持人，舞蹈家和A＆R在中国的人才。