Movie star: Leonardo DiCaprio in Qingdao. Credit:Sanghee Liu "The future of the world's film industry is in China because we have 1.3 billion people," he said. "We will have the biggest film business in the world by 2018." Mr Wang, who served for 17 years in the People's Liberation Army and sits on a key political advisory body to the Chinese government, has made little secret of his desire to shift the centre of gravity of the world's film industry eastward. The centrepiece of Mr Wang's grand plans is the Qingdao Oriental Movie Metropolis which, when completed in 2017, will house a 10,000 square metre film production centre with 19 smaller studios, complete with its own yacht club, theme park and an array of hotels and bars. "Our cultural [entertainment] business is No.1 in China, but what about in the world?" Mr Wang said. "This is our future investment direction. Our goal is to become one of the top 10 cultural companies in the world." "We either do it the best in the world or we don't bother doing it."

Glimpse into the future? Nicole Kidman in Quingdao. Credit:Sanghee Liu Mr Wang shot to prominence in global entertainment circles last year when Wanda Group bought AMC Entertainment for $US2.6 billion, in a deal that raised eyebrows not just because analysts believe he overpaid, but also because it gave him control of 5000 movie screens in the US. Wanda Group has agreements for 30 foreign films and 100 local films to be produced in Qingdao, which could then be beamed straight through its cinema network. "The desire to promote soft power was very much part of the [Chinese government's investment] policy of going out," Mathew Alderson, a Beijing-based entertainment lawyer with Harris & Moure, said. "There is already a pivot taking place in the global entertainment business, certainly in filmed entertainment." Mr Wang's largesse appears to have already won fans in Hollywood. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, which gives out the Oscars each year, received a $US20 million donation from Wanda and is now a key supporter of the Qingdao film festival. On the red carpet in Qingdao on Sunday night, DiCaprio posed for photos with Mr Wang, Kidman promised to return to film a movie, and Travolta said it all heralded a "new era" in film. Highlighting his meteoric rise, Mr Wang overtook drinks kingpin Zong Qinghou this year to become China's richest man for the first time. He is worth an estimated $US14 billion, according to Forbes. But his rise has not gone unquestioned in China, particularly his relationship with fallen Communist Party star Bo Xilai. Wanda got its start in the north-eastern city of Dalian, where Bo was mayor between 1993 and 2001.

"If someone says they don't rely on the Chinese government at all, and has no sort of relationship with the government to do business, then that person is a hypocrite," Mr Wang told reporters at the World Economic Forum earlier this month, before adding he had always "pursued the market, not people". The downfall of a number of Bo's closest associates, including businessman Xu Ming, has prompted sections of the local media to question whether Mr Wang's frantic growth strategy was to spread his personal assets offshore. The talk intensified after he effectively backdoor-listed his commercial property business on the Hong Kong stock exchange earlier this year. Mr Wang is building billion-dollar luxury developments in London and New York to add to the 75 shopping centres and 40 five-star hotels in his empire. And though he said expanding into Australia was not part of his current plans, growing everywhere else, at typical breakneck speed, does seem to be. "In the past five years, Wanda's income has grown at [an average of] 35 per cent a year," Mr Wang said. "I think this is a normal speed, but some feel it's too fast. But if we took regular steps to grow, we wouldn't be able to become No.1 in the world." "Do we have 100 years? I can't see it. So we must speed up." The contrast could not have been greater on Sunday. While Mr Wang squinted at flashing lightbulbs and hobnobbed with his Hollywood guests, Bo was being sentenced to life in jail for corruption and abuse of power, in a courtroom just a few hours drive away in Jinan.