Piers Read and Jeremy Rainbird’s company The Creative District Improvement Company (TCDI Co.) and subsidiary operating company Time + Space Studios, have announced a £500m investment in a network of film studios across the UK and have bought Twickenham Studios in a £50m deal.
TCDI Co plans to create one million square feet of production space by 2024 and will develop key educational partnerships and initiatives with the likes of Kent University aiming to address the growing skills gap.
Their strategy starts with the £50 million acquisition and proposed improvement of Twickenham Studios London (and expansion into Liverpool) announced today. Plans also include developing studio spaces in Kent and Liverpool generating a further 2,500 jobs for the UK.
Twickenham Studios was most recently credited for an Oscar for sound on Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody and last month a BAFTA for mixing Sam Mendez’s 1917 movie where sound engineering and mastering convened at Twickenham Studios during the final mix stage in July 2018. Films that have used the facilities, production and post-production, also include The Iron Lady, War Horse and My Week with Marilyn.
TCDI Co. plans to expand on the current success of Twickenham Studios and its existing campus by developing more production facilities, that will include film stages, flexible workspace for creative industries with new event and hospitality space.
Anthony Lilley OBE (Chairman TCDI Co.) said: “Despite the creative industries sector contributing 11% of the UK GDP in 2018 and growing five times faster than the national economy, increasing demand for studio and production space in the UK had threatened to derail Britain’s prosperous creative rise with a lack of funding, facilities and expertise. We at TCDI Co. have a genuine strategy that will address the space deficit and train the next generation of industry practitioners at each studio complex.”
Piers Read (Founder TCDI Co.) said: “Twickenham Studios is a much-loved studio, a world-renowned heritage brand and a fantastic trading company as well. We have significant capital to develop the estate and upgrade the facilities. As we continue to expand our operating studio platform throughout the UK including Liverpool and Ashford.”
Jeremy Rainbird (Founder TCDI Co.) said: “We are delighted to bring Twickenham Studios into the TSS family. We are living in a golden age of content that will drive huge employment for future generations to come. As the Chairman and founding investor in Merman the Global TV, Film and Advertising Content company, I know first-hand, how very much needed initiatives and facilities like these are. For our industry and for the next generation of content maker”
Adrian Wootton OBE, Chief Executive, Film London and the British Film Commission said: “The UK screen industries are enjoying an exceptional boom time and it is crucial that we capitalise on this by continuing to develop our world-class infrastructure and provide access to as much purpose built studio space as we possibly can. I am therefore delighted by today’s news of this major investment by a UK company into UK sites, including the expansion of Twickenham Studios with its rich history of attracting filmmakers, bringing benefits to the capital and indeed to the UK as a whole.”
Jon Creamer
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