*CHINESE FILM METROPOLIS*

WANG Jianlin, the billionaire boss of China's Dalian Wanda Group, said on Saturday he will turn the northern port city of Qingdao into-

A global film production hub as he launched a sprawling studio complex in a ceremony attended by hundreds.

Covering an area equivalent to more than  200 football pitches, the 400-acre Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis boasts the world's biggest movie studio and has been touted as China's answer to Hollywood.

The $8 billion project, built partly on an artificial island, also includes hotels and theme parks and a yacht club.

Wang, whose group controls US cinema chain AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc and US studio Legendary Entertainment, promised generous subsidies for  film makers  but indicated a focus on China's domestic film  market.

''We will boost the Chinese movie industry development,'' Wang said at the project's opening ceremony.

''We will also turn Qingdao into a global hub for film,'' he said, making no reference  to  Hollywood  in his brief speech.

Hundreds of  Chinese film industry representatives attended, as well as Hollywood executives and Chinese government officials that included the vice governor of  Shandong province.

The launch came as  the mutual courtship  between China and Hollywood looks less rosy.

A handful of  US-China film ventures have fallen apart due to cultural clashes.

Financing deals   -including Wanda's  $1 billion  wooing of  Hollywood studio  Dick Clark Productions Inc   -have also collapsed.

Hollywood's share of the  Chinese market  has lost ground to a surge of popular and sometimes  patriotic-minded  Chinese films.  [Agencies]