China's Wanda opens world's biggest studios to woo Hollywood filmmakers

Four gigantic, Chinese characters are aligned on a hill overlooking a seaside film studio complex, in a nod to the fabled Hollywood sign, the American cultural icon in Los Angeles.

Except this is northern China’s port city of Qingdao, where Dalian Wanda Group Co., a real-estate, retail and entertainment conglomerate, is opening its doors to an audacious $7.9 billion world-class film production hub, called the Oriental Movie Metropolis, or Dong Fang Ying Du.

The project boasts the world’s largest studios, a commercial complex covered with giant portraits of Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe and Bruce Lee. There’s also a reclaimed island full of