Q: Are you on track for the May opening of the Pinewood Iskandar Studios?
A: We are. We were originally hoping to open mid- May but, now it’s going to be in late May with our film stages first. There has been more interest in those than anything else in the country. Then, we’ll probably have our television and post-production facilities coming online in August.
Q: What can we expect at the opening?
A: We’re going to have a fairly quiet opening, just to get production in and started. We will probably do a big official opening later in the year. We have been promoting the facility for 18 months, throughout the world and in many different markets and there’s a real interest now. We’re talking to about nine projects from producers in the U.S, Japan, Australia, India and Germany. A lot of interest is being driven not just by the facility but also by the 30% Film In Malaysia incentive the Malaysian government has introduced.
Q: Do you feel that the incentive has had a positive impact?
A: Huge impact. It will be a game changer not just for international production but also for local productions. This is not just meant for bringing production into the country but it’s also growing the local industry as well.
Q: When will you announce the confirmed projects at Pinewood Iskandar?
A: We’re just in the final phases with a couple of projects but we hope that we will be in a position to announce some projects when we will be back here (in Cannes) for the Cannes Film Festival.
Q: Do you have enough talent coming out of Malaysia to provide for the studio’s needs?
A: No. We don’t. At the moment, we have a training programme that has already started and we have 150 people being trained in Johor near the studio. What we’re doing is that we brought in trainers out from Australia who all have international credits. It’s a three-month course and they will finish at just about the time that we’re starting to open. The goal is, by the end of the year, to have trained 900 to 1,000 people.
Q: Do these 150 people come under your payroll?
A: Some will and some won’t. Some will go to other areas. Some of those 150 will become trainers who will then continue to do this training. We have trainers out to teach, carpentry for instance, other people in set building. People who trained in accounting will one day be able to train other people in film production accounting. It’s about how we can grow the numbers of people there.
