Motion Picture Hall of Fame signs $50 million letter of intent with Chinese company—but will it be located in Hollywood?

L.A. Biz by Annlee Ellingson

Date: Thursday, October 11, 2012, 11:34am PDT

	Designed to honor and preserve the all-time-great movies, actors, writers, producers, directors and film composers as voted on by the public, the MPHOF would be the first institution of its kind.

In a move that may finally get the long-in-the-works project underway and take it to a global audience, the Motion Picture Hall of Fame has signed a letter of intent for $50 million in funding with UMS Investment Company, a Chinese venture capital corporation.

Under the deal, the first “chapter” of the themed attraction will be built in the United States, the second in China.

"Our goal is to build chapters in all the major film capitals of the world," said Robert Alexander, president and CEO of the MPHOF.

Designed to honor and preserve the all-time-great movies, actors, writers, producers, directors and film composers as voted on by the public, the MPHOF would be the first institution of its kind. It would certainly be appropriate to build MPHOF locations all over the world, as the movies are an international industry.

But it remains unclear whether the first MPHOF will be located in Hollywood, inarguably the capital of the global motion picture business. The initiative’s website, last updated on Tuesday, claims that it will be, but as recently as last year, reports had it slated to open on the East Coast in Atlantic City. In fact, in this interview, Jake Glassey, the media and historical research consultant for the MPHOF, cited New York, Philadelphia and Chicago as well as cities in Florida and New Jersey as candidates—but expressly not Los Angeles.

When I e-mailed Alexander to see whether the MPHOF was still slated to built in Hollywood, he deferred, saying, “All of our i’s and t’s are not dotted and crossed on the building of our choice yet.”