Paramount Pictures, one of the greatest film companies of Hollywood, has selected Turkey’s capital, Ankara for its latest theme park investment, reported to be worth $1 billion.

Paramount hopes to develop a park that is central to the Middle East and Europe. Construction of the park, which will be located near Asagi Yurtcu-Ballikuyumcu in the city of Eskisehir and will cover an area of 3-million square meters, is due to start in 2007.

In conjunction with the theme park construction, new hotels and private villas are expected to be constructed to accommodate visitors coming to the park. Paramount expects the Eskisehir theme park to be the biggest in the Middle East and hopes to attract around three million visitors a year.

The theme park, a replica of the park operating in the United States, hopes to attract visitors from Eastern Europe, Russia, Turkic republics, Asia, and the Middle East, by using the last ride technology and lower costs compared to their competitors in Europe.

The theme park modeled on Paramount’s US theme park, will include an ocean, icebergs, deserts and a forest, and visitors will even be able to take a trip to the Moon on the park’s space craft ride.