After Hollywood on the Tiber, Hollywood on the Hudson and Hollywood on the Veld in South Africa, France‘s world famous Champagne region could be the next location vying for the moniker.
French Billionaire businessman, and Mediawan co-founding partner, Xavier Niel has signed off on the acquisition of a derelict airbase outside the Champagne region’s unofficial capital of Reims, where he plans to build one of France’s biggest film and TV studios.
The 112 Reims-Champagne airbase, 81 miles northeast of Paris, has illustrious WW2 connections having hosted the United States Army Air Forces in the wake of the liberation in 1944. It then served as a French air force base until its closure in 2011.
The purchase, made by Niel via his NJJ Holding, paves the way for the construction of the new Studios de Reims. Niel has earmarked $84M (72M Euros) worth of investment, $14M of which will come from the French state, according to local media reports.
News of the acquisition was first reported by local northern France newspaper L’Union, which said the deal was sealed on July 22 having been first mooted in 2018.
It quoted a spokesman for Niel as saying that the new Studio de Reims would “be simpler, more logistically fluid and priced competitively in the face of the saturation of supply in Paris.”
The facility will be built across three phases and will eventually comprise 188,368 sq ft of sound studios, 301,389 sq ft of backlot and another 241,240 sq ft of dressing rooms and workshop space.
Phase 1 is due to be operational in 2026, with the entire site expected to be completed by 2031. The studios are projected to create from 250 to 300 jobs.
Niel, who is one of France’s wealthiest people having made his fortune in the telecoms sector, co-founded Paris-based production and distribution group Mediawan in 2015 with Matthieu Pigasse and Pierre-Antoine Capton.
Today, the company gathers more than 80 production companies including Plan B and See-Saw Films as well as French production houses Chapter 2 and Chi-Fou-Mi.
