Crows Landing new site for huge movie studio?

Movie and television producers are exploring building a huge, independent studio at the former Navy air base near Crows Landing.

Mare Island Studios is working with Gerry Kamilos, a developer hoping to bring an industrial complex to the site and a rail link to the Port of Oakland.

Disenchanted with Hollywood politics, the company negotiated most of the year with Vallejo to build an independent studio on the city's Mare Island, but talks fell apart, according to the November issue of Comstock's magazine.

A Mare Island executive told Comstock's that the studio would look for another location that would welcome 3,000 to 5,000 jobs.

Company president Howard Kazanjian produced blockbusters such as "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi," the magazine says.

If Mare Island chooses Crows Landing, crews would build a hotel and 1.2 million square-foot "world-class motion picture and television studio," wrote Carissa Carpenter, the company's chief executive officer, in a later dated Oct. 24 to Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors Chairman Dick Monteith.

"We believe that we have a very unique opportunity to create hundreds of well-paying jobs, both in the short and long term, (and) build a sustainable, green campus that will inspire the development of a new employment sector in your county," the letter reads.

This story was originally published November 1, 2011 at 11:51 PM with the headline "Crows Landing new site for huge movie studio?."