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It's a uniquely Chinese equation: take a government that's increasingly obsessed with its image abroad, add a wildly ambitious property tycoon, and you get a business announcement so elaborate that Leonardo DiCaprio will fly halfway across the world to bear witness to it.
China's richest man, Wang Jianlin, broke ground on Sunday for what is being touted as the world's most expensive film studio in Qingdao, a quiet city of three million people on the country's east coast.
When the Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis opens in 2017, according to Wang's speech at the ceremony, it will cover more than 500 hectares (two square miles) and include a studio for filming underwater, a permanent car show, seven resort hotels, an indoor amusement park, a 300-berth yacht club, 20 sound stages and a hospital.
DiCaprio, John Travolta, Nicole Kidman, Catherine Zeta Jones, Jet Li and Ewan McGregor were all at the launch, alongside a host of other celebrities.
Wang, 58, the chairman of the Beijing-based property developer Dalian Wanda Group, called the studio the most expensive film industryinvestment of all time – an "unprecedented project that will create history" according to transcripts of his speech posted to the company's website. It will cost up to 30bn yuan (£3bn) and open in 2017.
The complex's sheer size is in keeping with the challenges that it seeks to overcome. China's film industry, while growing, is burdened by a stultifying bureaucracy and draconian censorship.
Hollywood imports account for the bulk of the country's box-office takings. While US-China co-productions have become common in recent years, few have gone on to conquer global markets. Many get so tangled up in negotiations that they never make it past the planning stage.
China maintains a strict quota on the number of foreign films screened in the country each year, and those that make the cut are often dragged down by censorship. The government-approved cut of the Wachowskis' Cloud Atlas was 40 minutes shorter than the original. In April, Quentin Tarantino's revenge western Django Unchained was withdrawn from cinemas minutes into its first screening; it reopened a month later with three of the goriest minutes missing and flopped.
The Chinese government has pumped billions of pounds of subsidies into the arts, hoping that domestic films can help improve the country's image abroad. China's film industry has grown tenfold since 2002, with an average of nine new screens opening in the country every day.
Wang is suffused with optimism: he told reporters that he expected China's cinema audience, currently the world's second largest, to take the top spot from the US by 2018. "With the huge potential that comes with a population of 1.3 billion, the global film industry will recognise that the sooner you partner with China, the sooner you make more money," he said, according to the state news agency, Xinhua.
Yet critics say that no matter how much cash is in the system, China will not outshine Hollywood until its film-makers are given more creative space.
Feng Xiaogang, a historical epic director sometimes called China's Spielberg, broached the topic while accepting a "director of the year" award from the China Film Directors' Guild in April. "A lot of times when you receive a [censorship] order, it's so ridiculous that you don't know whether to laugh or cry," he said. A video of his acceptance speech briefly went viral online before it was itself removed by censors.
Wang grew up hungry and spent 17 years in the People's Liberation Army; he later became the first Chinese citizen to own a private jet.
His company is best known for its prime properties throughout China, including 72 Wanda Plazas – sprawling developments that usually include shopping centres, hotels and cinemas.
The company has also been exploring abroad. Last year, Wang's £1.6bn acquisition of the US multiplex chain AMC Cinemas made international headlines. He is building luxury hotels in New York and London. Last week, he donated £12m to the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences in Los Angeles, which will name a new film library in his honour.
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一個國際形象在不斷提升的政府，加上一位雄心壯志的房地產巨鱷，等於一個連萊昂納多•迪卡普裡奧都要飛過半個地球來見證的商業消息，這就是獨具特色的中國式等式。
中國首富王健林計劃在青島建造的影城——這座擁有300萬人口的安靜的中國東部沿海城市，於9月22日周日破土動工。據稱，其建成後將成為世界上耗資最巨大的影城。
王健林在奠基儀式上發表講話稱，青島東方影都在2017開業時，將佔地500公頃（2平方英裡）。其中包含一個水下攝影工作室、一個永久性車展、7個度假酒店、一個室內遊樂場、一個擁有300個泊位的遊艇俱樂部、20個影棚以及一家醫院。
迪卡普裡奧、約翰•特拉沃爾塔、妮可•基德曼、凱薩琳•澤塔•瓊斯、伊萬•邁克格雷格和李連杰等與其他眾多明星一起出席了奠基儀式。
58歲的王健林是地產開發商大連萬達集團的董事長，其總部設在北京，他把即將建造的影都稱為有史以來電影業的最大投資——「史無前例，將會創造歷史的項目」。該影都將耗資300億人民幣（30億英鎊），預計於2017年建成開業。
青島東方影都規模如此，也意味著其要迎接的挑戰巨大。中國的電影業雖然在不斷發展，但卻在國內沉悶嚴苛的審查制度的影響下倍感壓抑。
如今，好萊塢的電影佔據了中國票房的大半江山。雖然近年來中美合作了不少電影，但鮮有作品能夠在國際市場引起太大反響。許多電影在拍攝前的協商階段就遭遇重重困難，還未進入計劃階段就已夭折。
中國對於每年進口國外電影的數量有嚴格的限制，而其嚴格的審查制度也通常會對進口的電影進行刪減。由沃卓斯基姐弟導演的《雲圖》在中國放映時就比原電影縮短了40分鐘。而四月份上映的由昆汀•塔倫蒂諾導演的《被解放的姜戈》僅放映了幾分鐘就被緊急叫停，一個月後重返銀幕時，有三分鐘的血腥場面已被刪減，遭遇慘澹票房。
中國政府已投入了數十億英鎊用於發展文藝事業，希望國產電影能夠幫助提升其國際形象。中國的電影業自2002年起開始發展迅速，平均每天就有9部電影上映。
王健林很樂觀，他告訴記者，目前中國電影觀眾的數量在全世界排第二位，他期待2018年的時候能夠超越美國佔據首位。據新華社報導，王健林稱：「中國有13億的人口，潛力是巨大的，國際電影界會認識到，越早與中國合作就會越快盈利。」
但有批評者認為，除非給予電影製作者更大的創作空間，否則無論投入多少資金，中國的電影都不會超越好萊塢。
被稱為「中國的史匹柏」的著名導演馮小剛四月份在接受中國電影導演協會頒發的「年度最佳導演」 獎時說到了這一問題。「很多時候當你聽到一個（審查）意見時，你會覺得特別荒謬，讓人啼笑皆非。」馮小剛這段發表獲獎感言的視頻在網上被瘋傳，稍後被審查人員刪除。
王健林在貧窮中長大，當了17年的兵。後來他成為第一個擁有私人飛機的中國人。
他的公司因房地產事業聞名，其在全國擁有72座萬達廣場——通常包含購物中心、酒店與影院的綜合建築。
萬達的觸角也已伸向海外。去年，王健林斥資160億英鎊收購美國AMC影院產業鏈的消息登上了世界新聞的頭條。目前，他正在紐約和倫敦建設豪華酒店。而9月中旬，他又向位於洛杉磯的電影藝術與科學學院捐款1200萬英鎊，該學院則以他的名字命名了一座新建成的電影圖書館。
（譯者 xiaoyang_v 編輯 丹妮）