SINGAPORE is setting the stage - literally - for special effects movies like Frank Miller's acclaimed 300, with a new 19-hectare media hub to be built at 1 North.
When completed in 2020, the park, which is about the size of 23 football fields, will feature digital media schools, production companies, 24-hour food and entertainment outlets, business hotels, service apartments, and Singapore's biggest and most high-tech film production set.
Mediapolis, as the park is called, will 'add significant scale and depth to Singapore's media infrastructure,' said Dr Lee Boon Yang, the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, at the annual Asian Media Festival on Wednesday.
'It will serve as the crucible for creating and sustaining powerful chain reactions to produce, package and distribute compelling and attractive media content and products for consumers around the world." he added.
"It will have media facilities not found elsewhere in Singapore and become the ideal home for international and local media companies, media schools and R&D firms.'
The media industry contributes US$3.6 billion, or 4.5 per cent, to Singapore's gross domestic product and employs some 54,000 people.
The Republic, which is striving to become a global media hub by 2015, has been hampered by the lack of 'infrastructure' like soundstages, said Media Development Authority of Singapore chief executive Dr Christopher Chia.
Local production company Infinite Frameworks, the firm behind animated movie Sing to the Dawn, will start construction of the first building, a 1.2 hectare soundstage, in the first quarter next year.
A soundstage is a large, environment-controlled hanger-like building, in which production houses can create cinema sets. When completed, the soundstage will be Singapore's largest and most advanced such facility with the capability to shoot high definition and 3D movies, said the firm's managing director Mike Wiluan,
The cost of building the facility, which will have a larger soundstage of 20,000 to 30,000 square feet for larger-scale productions, and two smaller ones of about 8,000 square feet apiece for advertisements and TV series, is expected cost between '$80 million and $120 million' and will take two years to complete, said Mr Wiluan.
A mock-up of the Mediapolis unveiled on Wednesday shows 18 buildings. The tallest will be about 20 storeys, due to zoning restrictions.
The entire project, when completed, will provide some 280,000 million square metres of gross floor area, said industrial landlord JTC Corporation's assistant chief executive Philip Su.
The site is currently occupied by a military transport base. The Defence Ministry is expected to vacate the place by 'end 2010', said Mr Su.
Depending on demand, the Government may opt to expand the Mediapolis by another 18 hectares on an adjacent plot, which is also currently occupied by Mindef, said Mr Su.
