If appearing in some of the most iconic NYC-set cinema and being a founding father to the Tribeca Film Festival weren’t impressive enough, Robert De Niro is now set to make even more movie magic in the Big Apple. The star’s brand new production hub, situated in his native New York, is finally complete, per The Hollywood Reporter. The price for crafting a space in this surprisingly untapped filmmaking market? A mere $1 billion.
Located in Astoria, Queens, the project, dubbed Wildflower Studios, is reportedly the world’s first-ever vertical film studio and production soundstage; the complex, spanning 765,000 square feet, hosts 11 “sound-independent stages” stacked on two levels, according to THR. Imagined by developer Adam Gordon with the help of Danish starchitect Bjarke Ingels, its Brutalist-inspired exteriors feature angled concrete panels. Gordon told THR that after noticing the city’s lack of soundstages five years ago (but a “pent-up demand” for them), he observed how New York has addressed spatial and density problems by building upwards and envisioned creating a vertical production space. De Niro and his eldest son, Raphael, soon joined as investors and, together with an undisclosed lender and another financier, assembled $1 billion for the project.
“The nature of architecture is that it’s very risk averse,” Ingels told THR. “So when no one has built a stacked movie studio before, no one would really want to do it. [But] architecture is so governed by what’s already been done, that with the proven success of Wildflower, I think it’s going to open a door for many similar projects.”
With his experience as the owner (and resident) of Tribeca’s Greenwich hotel and co-founder of the Nobu franchise, hospitality is a primary concern for De Niro. Per THR, the star paid “special attention to the studio’s commissary … insisting that execs, cast, and crew should sit in the same room and eat the same food, [and] that food had to live up to New York standards.” The publication notes that the cafeteria walls will be covered with canvases painted by De Niro’s father.
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The Oscar winner, a West Village native, says that the appeal of Wildflower Studios is the city itself. “New York is the greatest backlot,” De Niro told THR. “Plus, we have the most extraordinary talent, whether actors or craftspeople, above and below the line… The other cities are all good, and I’ve shot in all of them, [but] it’s just that the bottom line is most people would rather be in New York, if they could. Especially if they live there.” Wildflower Studios is slated to host its first production in December 2024.
