Britain’s Hollywood: The history of Pinewood Studios

Posted On July 13, 2024July 13, 2024

Unless something drastic happens, Hollywood is always going to be the most famous and iconic cinema hub on the planet. That’s the way it’s always been and probably the way it’s going to remain forever. However, Pinewood has given Tinseltown a run for its money as the industry’s favoured hotbed.

When the studio first opened in September 1936, nobody could have predicted just how rapidly the medium would evolve, with Pinewood regularly playing host to eye-wateringly expensive blockbusters. It did set out a stall early, though, with a couple of classics calling it home in its formative years.

Born from a desire to play Hollywood at its own game, Pinewood has played host to some of the biggest films in history and many of its most distinguished auteurs. The first feature shot at the studio was Herbert Wilcox’s London Melody and the first filmed entirely on the grounds from beginning to end was The Third Man director Carol Reed’s Talk of the Devil, both in 1936.

A decade later, the heavyweights came calling when Powell and Pressburger used Pinewood for The Red Shoes, and David Lean pitched up for Oliver Twist, both of which were released within months of each other in 1948. In the early 1960s, the facility welcomed its most famous resident, Terence Young, who introduced James Bond to cinemagoers everywhere in Dr. No.

The suave secret agent became such a regular presence at Pinewood that he eventually had a stage named in its honour, the Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage, one of the biggest soundstages in the world. Initially constructed in 1976, it was razed to the ground a decade later when a fire raged through Ridley Scott and Tom Cruise’s fantasy flop Legend, and again in 2006 when sets being dismantled following Casino Royale caught ablaze.

Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig have all shot 007 movies at Pinewood, while other famous films to follow suit include Richard Donner’s Superman, Frank Oz’s Little Shop of Horrors, Tim Burton’s Batman, Brian De Palma’s Mission: Impossible, Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element, Oliver Stone’s infamous Alexander, Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, and even an episode of Emmerdale.

Pinewood is now part of a multinational conglomerate of production houses, with Ridley and Tony Scott heading up a consortium that purchased old rival Shepperton Studios to create the Pinewood Group, which also includes Teddington Studios, Iskandar Malaysia Studios, and international Pinewood ventures in Berlin and Atlanta. As of 2020, Walt Disney Studios has been leasing the majority of stages under a 10-year agreement, leaving very little room to manoeuvre for anyone else hoping to use the facilities.

It’s existed for almost 90 years, and in that time it’s evolved from a quaint British studio to a major player in the production business, with Pinewood proving to be such a draw for the biggest and wealthiest corporations in Hollywood that the Mouse House itself decided to splash out and use it as the company’s erstwhile base of filmic operations for a full decade.

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