While Britain has Pinewood and Germany has Babelsberg, France currently doesn’t have a studio where large Hollywood projects can set up shop and film. Well, director Luc Besson, a man who can never be said to lack ambition, wants to change all that. He’s announced plans to build a $42 million studio in Paris, which would include nine soundtages, and will be part of the ‘Cite Du Cinema’ development, which will also include a film school, as well as wokrshops, offices and a state of the art theatres. The whole project will cost over $200 million.
Besson said at the launch that he’s found the lack of major production facilities in France frustrating as, for example, he had to film The Fifth Element at Pinewood, because there was nowhere in France that could house the production.
The studio is hoping to lure in major Hollywood projects using the 20% tax rebate the French government has approved, and that it will turn the country from a producer of niche arthouse films, into a major player in the film world.