Pinewood to open movie production studio in Malaysia

Pinewood Shepperton Plc, the owner of studios where James Bond and Harry Potter movies were made, will open a media and production studio in southern Malaysia. It will partner a unit of Khazanah Nasional Bhd, a Malaysian state fund, to build on an 80-acre site in the Iskandar region of Johor bordering Singapore, the Southeast Asian company’s Managing Director Azman Mokhtar told reporters in Kuala Lumpur today. Pinewood’s studio will cost 400m ringgit ($116m) to build and will open by early 2013, Azman said, adding it will directly create 3,000 jobs. Pinewood will provide operational and marketing input as well as technical advice and rights to use its global brand. The facility will offer high-definition equipped TV studios and film stages, post-production suites, offices, workshops and a back lot. It will initially target productions from Malaysia and the Asia-Pacific before expanding to international productions in the long-term, the statement said.