Pinewood to challenge Hollywood

[christoph404]

Interesting article in todays London Evening Standard newspaper. Pinewood Studios have announced plans for a huge development, the £200 million "Project Pinewood" will centre on a 100 acre site next to the studios in Iver Heath. Pinewood is seeking planning permision for the large expansion which will include state of the art developements including a fully formed replica of a medieval castle. Surrounding it will be zones modelled on popular film and tv backdrops including downtown New York, Boston, Prague,Venice, Lake Como, Los Angeles and a Roman amphitheatre, many of which will be visible from the M25.

For more info go to Project Pinewood

[julian_craster]

Sounds more like a theme park for tourists to me (imitating the Universal Studios tour in Hollywood ? )......

I thought the idea of having permanent standing sets (which may only be used once every 5 years or so) went out of favour in Hollywood over 30 years ago, when MGM and other studios sold off their back lots to property developers !

[christoph404]

Originally Posted by julian_craster Sounds more like a theme park for tourists to me (imitating the Universal Studios tour in Hollywood ? )...... I thought the idea of having permanent standing sets (which may only be used once every 5 years or so) went out of favour in Hollywood over 30 years ago, when MGM and other studios sold off their back lots to property developers !

I don't think there are any plans to turn it into a theme park along the lines of Universal Studios! Anyhow,MGM made a huge mistake selling off their backlot, the revenue generated by tourists to Universal Studios is huge, if MGM had done the same they would be making more than what they got for the land in the 70s! I think in the 70s the trend was towards location filming so I would agree with you that studio and backlot filming went out of favour 30 years ago but it seems to be that as technology has changed (CGI) the preference for studio and backlot filming has returned. Permanent sets can be dressed up to look very differently from film to film, they can also be used for commercials, photo shoots and TV series, I think "Project Pinewood" sounds very exciting and the prospect of more international filmakers coming to Iver Heath rather than going to Eastern Europe or Australia has got to be a good thing, it should provide thousands of much needed jobs not to mention bringing in much needed revenue.