Pinewood Group is to massively expand its Shepperton site in West London with 100 acres of land adjacent to the current site already purchased.
Pinewood chairman and interim CEO Paul Golding told Variety Magazine: “What we have been doing over the last 18 months is investing into land. We have bought 100 acres adjacent to the studio. We don’t have planning but will start that process in the next couple of months.”
In recent years, Shepperton has played host to movies including Guardians of the Galaxy, Into the Woods, Doctor Strange and Beauty and the Beast.
The news about the Shepperton plans follows closely on the heels of rumours that the Pinewood Group has expressed an interest in developing and running the studios at Dagenham, east London planned by London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Barking and Dagenham Council.
Pinewood also recently applied for planning permission to build another three sound stages on its Buckinghamshire site. This comes on top of the five it opened last July.
Studios around London and the rest of the UK are similarly looking to expand as film and high end TV production booms in the UK.
BFI figures released in January show that the inward investment spend on film and high-end TV reached a record breaking £2.37bn in the UK in 2017
The year saw continued growth in the UK’s production sector with the total spend on film production in the UK hitting £1.9bn, a 12% increase on 2016 and the highest figures since BFI records began over 20 years ago.
The year also saw a new record for spend on inward investment film and television production with £1.69bn for film, a 23% increase on the previous year and £684m for high-end television production, a 27% increase on 2016’s level. Total spend on high end television production was £938m.
Jon Creamer
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