Variety got the exclusive on a possible studio expansion at Shepperton Studios….
The Pinewood Group has bought a large chunk of land next to Shepperton Studios with a view to expanding the iconic complex as demand for stages and workshops in the U.K. continues to increase. The next phase of expanding the company’s cornerstone Pinewood Studios is also under way, with potentially a third phase of development to come. And to focus on growing its studio spaces, the group has gotten out of the film finance and production business, shuttering its Pinewood Pictures unit.
Pinewood Studios, where the James Bond films were shot, is set for a $276 million doubling in size. Shepperton Studios in west London, the arch-rival it bought out in 2001, was the British filming home for such movies as Dr. Strangelove, Alien and the just-wrapped Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. It occupies 600,000 square feet over 25 acres, and Pinewood has now acquired an adjacent lot four times that size.
“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,” Pinewood chairman and interim CEO Paul Golding told Variety.
Golding is a partner at private equity firm Aermont, which bought the Pinewood Group for $446 million in 2016. Aermont specializes in real estate, and a bond issue it completed at the end of 2017 raised about $345 million, some of which will be used to cover the Pinewood Studios expansion. The Shepperton development will require additional finance.
“We want to be able to put additional supply into our hopper,” Golding said in his first major interview since Aermont bought Pinewood. “When we execute will be determined by planning consent and by demand, and if demand is there we will meet it through increased supply. We want to put together a [collection] of sites to meet that.”
Last year saw film and high-end TV production spending in the U.K. top $4 billion for the first time — a domestic record. “Demand for our skills is incredibly high, and while studio space has increased dramatically thanks to new sites like Church Fenton and Belfast Harbour Studios coming online, as well as significant expansions at Pinewood and Leavesden, space remains at a premium,” said Adrian Wootton, chief executive of Film London and the British Film Commission. “We believe it’s almost a ‘Field of Dreams’ situation when it comes to new studio space: If we build it, productions will come.”
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