Inside the Creative Kingdom bringing Hollywood to Chiang Mai

NotAdmin · Jan 21, 2010

Saw this postedon EF, and thought it would be worth repeating the article and link here.

Creative Kingdom, an international company whose diverse portfolio consists of architectural and master planning design, 2D/3D cartoon animation, CGI 3D architectural video animation, music production and more, has plans to change not just the geographical landscape, but the economic, of Chiang Mai.

Their office in Chiang Mai, the biggest of seven - Dubai, L.A., Beijing, Manila, Johannesburg and Bangkok - is a technological cornucopia, a labyrinthine string of charismatic rooms that take up three floors of the Kad Suan Kaew shopping complex. Replete with larger than life sized cartoon characters goofily grinning behind glass windows, whacky sets for children's television, and animations playing on the ubiquitous plasma screens, it makes the experience of being there somewhat intoxicating. You walk into yet more rooms to find immaculately detailed model structures of architectural developments, from theme parks on terra firma, to worlds in other galaxies that will soon be inhabited by online gamers all over the planet; turn the corner and find concentrated artists, designers, architects, sketching, drafting and fiddling with the many ongoing projects of the Creative Kingdom.

Mark Thomas, the company's Chief Financial Officer, a native of Wales, whose inflexion has been somewhat affected by his fifteen years in Scotland, spared us almost three hours of his busy work day to delineate the history of Creative Kingdom, from its chrysalis to its present day success. Thomas has been with Creative Kingdom for the past five years, having joined the company's founders, Eduardo A. Robles and Thanu Boonyawatana, whilst working in the Middle East. "Both Eduardo and Thanu were world renowned architects, working from L.A.; both of them worked for all the top architects firms. They met on a number of projects, recognised each other's potential, and decided to start their own company," explains Thomas. Robles, born in Mexico is now a naturalised American, as is Thanu, who was born in Bangkok. "Robles is the entrepreneur," says Thomas, "and Thanu is the design genius." This combination of talent inspired them to form Creative Kingdom in 1997, and soon their work was vaunted all over the world, giving them the opportunity to work on some astounding modern day architectural feats including Dubai's Madinat Jumeirah, the MGM Grand Casino in Macau and the Lost City Hotel and Resort in South Africa. "Whether they were designing resorts, hotels or theme parks, their objective was always to bring the 'wow factor' to a development," says Thomas, who exhibits an obvious pride for the men's past achievements.

In their early years Creative Kingdom worked out of Dubai, many of their projects being in the 'city of gold', which was developing faster than the banks could print the money. Many of their other projects were in South Africa, where, in the spirit of their entrepreneurial acumen, they bought a record label which went on to sign on two of South Africa's most successful R&B artists. "This was their first foray into the entertainment industry," says Thomas. An achievement in itself, though he goes on to say that "their greatest achievement of the past was Madinat Jumeirah, a complex consisting of two hotels, a residential area, a mall and a theatre, under the theme of 'water'." It was during this time that Thanu invited some of his old classmates from Thailand to Dubai to help with a workload that was always increasing. "This is where the Chiang Mai connection starts," explains Thomas, "some of the Thai guys were not happy living in Dubai, so Thanu and Eduardo decided to open an office in Thailand. Bangkok didn't suit them because of lifestyle issues, so they scouted Phuket and Chiang Mai. They decided on Chiang Mai and set up here in 2004." Robles quickly fell in love with the city and relocated permanently here in 2005. Thomas talks of Robles' fondness of Chiang Mai, and also the potential he saw,

"He realised there were young, talented artists here whom he thought he could develop into great designers and architects." Thomas maintains that if you recognise cultural differences, you can attain success from your staff. He expresses that what Creative Kingdom has done is take local Thai artists and offer them international projects, international standards, the best in technology and software, and allow them to hone their talents within their cultural comfort zone.

Robles always had a dream to create children's animation, and that dream came to fruition in Chiang Mai when he started a small 2D and 3D animation team that went on to make cartoons for Thai television. If you've ever seen Magic Panda and the Cool Kids, Bubble Warriors or the Trio Bunnies, you have Robles to thank for your viewing pleasure. Their small team of animation artists grew and grew; they are presently working on creating an entire animated virtual planet (Cyrene) for the online platform game - otherwise known as an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) - 'Entropia Universe', one of the biggest online games in existence with 810,000 registered participants from over 220 countries. The game is free to play though real planet Earth money is the only accepted currency in the Entropia Universe. "We've been on this eighteen months already and have sixty people working on the project," Thomas tells me, and takes me to look at some of the fantastic creations they are working on. It will launch sometime in 2010.

Robles, I'm told, favours work to sleep - aside from creating architectural wonders and building planets, he also finds time to write children's novels - and is consistently etching out new ideas. In 2007 he had the idea for Chiang Mai Wood. Robles and Thanu put together a business plan, consulting Chiang Mai's already established filmmaker, Chris Lowenstein of Living Films, and were told they would receive support from the BOI (Board of Investment) - a government initiative to support large businesses that will benefit the Thai economy. They received an eight year tax break. "At first it was going to be a fully functioning, Hollywood standard, film studio complex that would be a viable alternative to Hollywood, where you could make a start to finish movie," says Thomas. Although movie studios soon transmuted to bigger things in Robles' mind and what was to be 10-30 rai of land for film studios became 650-1400 rai of land on the outskirts of Chiang Mai - the exact location is supposed to be top secret, though those living in the area seem to be quite in the know and surrounding property is already being eyed by investors - that will encapsulate hotels, residential areas, affordable housing to luxury housing, shopping outlets, an art and design university, hi-end arts theatre, restaurants, theme park rides, apartment complexes and just about everything you could imagine and a little more besides. Looking at the model of Chiang Mai Wood - not yet available for public viewing - the project looks as ambitious as it does outlandish, as it's hard to imagine Hollywood studios and Beverly Hills style luxury developments here in Chiang Mai. Though Thomas replies, when asked if the project wasn't just a bit too mega: "Edurado told me, 'this aint so big,'" and added that Creative Kingdom has indeed completed bigger projects in other countries. Although Chiang Mai Wood might just be a tad more special than previous projects as this is Creative Kingdom's very own project, "a legacy project", it's their vision, from start to finish, whereas in the past they were consultants.

A deal for the land has already been agreed upon and the project is now underway. "It has big potential for Chiang Mai, for employment opportunities, new business to the area, huge tourism potential, and we are already in talks with major Hollywood studios and theme park developers whose names we would like to attach to the development," says Thomas, as we look at the giant model aside the main office at CK. Chiang Mai Wood will be open to the public, it will be a small town within a small town, with as many features as you can imagine, including Chiang Mai's first beach outside of Huay Tung Tao. If you're interested in buying a plot, land will be up for grabs soon through www.gowealthy.com. The first phase of the 650 million dollar _ give or take a few bucks - project will take three years to complete, while the entire project should take seven years.

In the midst of their colourful enterprise Thomas explains that you can be anywhere in the world, whether looking at incredible architecture in the Middle East, traipsing the futuristic streets of a city in a virtual galaxy, or looking at a cityscape exhibition in New York, and if you look closely, you'll see that what you are looking at was "Made in Chiang Mai".

[Ed. In spite of Dubai's current economic woes, CNXwood project, says Creative Kingdom, will go ahead on schedule.]

by James Austin Farrell
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Originally posted at SkyscraperCity here.

khaos · Jun 19, 2010

Another post on this topic

Will Chiang Mai become Hollywood East?

Fri, Jun 18, 2010
The Nation/Asia News Network

Creative Kingdom, a US-based film production firm, yesterday kicked off construction of the Bt20-billion ($861 million) Chiang Mai Movie Town Project, or CNXWood, saying they aim to be a regional hub of film-making.

"Thailand has the potential to host a 'movie town' and game business combination. These are not affected by internal political uncertainty or the global financial crisis," said the group's chief executive officer, Eduardo Robles.

The investment Creative Kingdom and its partners is putting into Chiang Mai would have to be five times larger to work in China, Robles said.

The growth of the movie business and game and animation work will gradually increase, and Thailand can play a leading role in the sector, he added.

The project was announced in 2009 as using land in Mae Rim district. However, some parcels had what ownership problems so the group relocated the project to San Kamphaeng district.

Major foreign investors from South Africa, the Philippines, the Middle East and Korea hold 49 per cent of the group. But some local investors have changed as a result of the relocation. Some land owners have joined the project.

The group says the entire development will be worth US$617 million (Bt20 billion) on 1,500 square rai. It will start the first phrase this year on 200 square rai, which will consist mainly of studios and residences. It expects to spend $70 million for the beginning step.

White House Studio Complex, in the part the first phase of the project, will include state of the art studios with a full range of sound stages and post-production facilities. The group expects the development to attract representative offices from the major Hollywood studios and believe it will eventually become a thriving nexus of the international film-making market in Southeast Asia. The complex is set to be complete by the end of 2012.

According to Robles, the whole project should finish over the next seven years. Additional development will be studios, world class shops, a theme park, a university, residences and a convention hall and hotel with beach and entertainment facilities. The entire development is expected to require over 4,000 jobs both local and foreigners.

Chiang Mai will also become a game production town by providing a high-tech infrastructure that will attract the world's major IT and game production companies to set up facilities in CNXWood.

The Board of Investment has already approved the three-studio plan. This approval is now in the process for other parts to cover wider aspects of the overall project.

US Ambassador Eric John said he welcomed the work that Creative Kingdom was doing to create business opportunities and jobs for northern Thailand.

The plan includes the development of a residential estate to accommodate the working community.

The Chiang Mai film production company Living Films, Southeast Asia's leading media provider to the Hollywood studios; Swedish game production company Mindark, producers of the Entropia Universe MMORPG game; American game producers Digital Scryers; and Dabok, a Korean TV and film production company have already expressed interest in becoming some of the first companies to establish offices at CNXWood.

source: http://business.asiaone.com/Business...18-222767.html
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LeeYap · Jul 24, 2010

Fri, Jun 18, 2010
The Nation/Asia News Network

Creative Kingdom, a US-based film production firm, yesterday kicked off construction of the Bt20-billion ($861 million) Chiang Mai Movie Town Project, or CNXWood, saying they aim to be a regional hub of film-making.

Kicked off construction? Really folks, after seeing Rocktopia you still hope for additional planets?

Asia is weird! Use the google to look up Malaysia's "Information Super Corridor" Asia isn't bad just weird, it's not like western countries.

It just won't happen anytime soon. Ie 15 to 20 years

Cia Fact Book
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/th.html

Major infectious diseases:
degree of risk: high
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea
vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis, and malaria
animal contact disease: rabies
water contact disease: leptospirosis
note: highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza has been identified in this country; it poses a negligible risk with extremely rare cases possible among US citizens who have close contact with birds (2009)

School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education):
total: 14 years
male: 13 years
female: 14 years (2006)

Yea, this will happen soon. If they can keep the same government for 5 years running.

NotAdmin · Jul 24, 2010

LeeYap said: ↑

Creative Kingdom, a US-based film production firm, yesterday kicked off construction of the Bt20-billion ($861 million) Chiang Mai Movie Town Project, or CNXWood, saying they aim to be a regional hub of film-making.

Kicked off construction? Really folks, after seeing Rocktopia you still hope for additional planets?
Click to expand...

This sounds more like a RL, brick-and-mortar project to me than a virtual one.

LeeYap · Jul 24, 2010

admin said: ↑

This sounds more like a RL, brick-and-mortar project to me than a virtual one.
Click to expand...

Precisely my point they are short lived there, especially the grandious ones, like this.

Wistrel · Jul 25, 2010

ah well at least cyrene is still going ahead; a crew of 60 seems pretty good too!

Looking forward to whatever story they bring to the game

Wistrel

Einstein · Jul 26, 2010

Made in Thailand!! Must be good!!!

cKI are the only ones that keep my hope alive for the future a little bit.

MG Mighty · Jul 26, 2010

Einstein said: ↑

cKI are the only ones that keep my hope alive for the future a little bit.
Click to expand...

Same here.

Einstein · Jul 27, 2010

I think are the only ones that really want to make cool game. The other planets are more like marketing tools for products. Movies, music, whatever ... . I think cKi wants to explore more the gaming business and want to find out if they can be succesful. I'm also pretty sure that if they are succesful, they will be quick to cut MA out of the picture.

Tass · Jul 27, 2010

Einstein said: ↑

I think are the only ones that really want to make cool game. The other planets are more like marketing tools for products. Movies, music, whatever ...
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more.

I just uploaded 2 new concept art images of creatures to the wiki page: Cyrene Concept Art.

Would also be great to have some more questions for Cyrene Creative Director Ed Robles in this thread: All you ever wanted to know about...

Lykke TheNun · Jul 27, 2010

Tass said: ↑

Couldn't agree more.

I just uploaded 2 new concept art images of creatures to the wiki page: Cyrene Concept Art.

Would also be great to have some more questions for Cyrene Creative Director Ed Robles in this thread: All you ever wanted to know about...
Click to expand...

arent you lieing on a warm beach now, drinking cold Beer??

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