Director OLIVER STONE is planning to turn Thailand into the new Hollywood, after buying a plot of land to build a studio on.

The Platoon filmmaker has been working on the project with producer David Winters, and hopes to attract other stars to move their sets to the south-east Asian country.

A friend of Stone says, "He and David have found some land halfway between Bangkok and Pattaya and a studio is being built for use by the U.S. and British film industry. "Obviously the beautiful coastlines have always made perfect filming locales, but although it’s one of the booming Pacific rim economies, it’s also a relatively cheap place to make films and a place where extras can be employed at a reduced rate." And the pal reveals stars have already got a nickname for the site.

He adds, "It’s early days but already those working alongside Stone are jokingly calling it Ollywood." Stone is not the only movie mogul to move away from Hollywood - Mel Gibson is on a similar mission to turn Costa Rica into the next movie hotspot.