Richard Taylor is interested in Chinese culture and looks to further increase of the Chinese film market. [Photo/wxrb.com]

Richard Taylor, a world-famous filmmaker and master of special effects, visited Wuxi National Digital Film Industrial Park with his team on Feb 27.

As the head of New Zealand film prop and special effects company Weta Workshop, Richard Taylor and his team created all of the props, costumes, prosthetics, miniatures and weaponry for Peter Jackson's epic The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. For his work on the three films, he shared in winning four Academy Awards. In 2005, he also won another for Best Visual Effects with the monster adventure film King Kong.

Wuxi mayor Huang Qin welcomed the visitors and gave a brief introduction to the economic and cultural development of the city. He said Wuxi has attached great importance to the cultural industry in recent years and seen fruitful results.

According to Huang, Wuxi National Digital Film Industrial Park, also called Wuxi Studios, has become a well-known shooting and post-production base in the industry, producing more than 100 films last year alone. Some 400 film companies cover most of the films in the industry.

"Wuxi welcomes more domestic and international cultural companies to settle here, and the government will give full support to producing more good TV and film works," said Huang.

Taylor and his team are looking to further increase their presence in the Chinese film market, having already worked on the Chinese science fiction film The Wandering Earth. He said Wuxi left a good impression on him and he would like to have the chance to work with Wuxi companies.