There is not one backstage lot that speaks volumes in the United States as every major studio has it, but there is one in the United Kingdom that has a book’s worth of history. While it isn’t the only major backlot over there, when a movie is filmed in Pinewood, it means the movie is massively important. Eighteen miles from London, the films Superman (1978), Full Metal Jacket, Batman (1989), The Dark Knight, The Hobbit series, Gravity, and countless more have been shot here at this one spot. Being a hotspot for blockbuster-type films, it only makes sense that a prestigious place like Pinewood Studios would be the site of many legendary productions.
In 1934, construction magnate Charles Boot bought the Victorian estate Heatherden Hall and transformed the country house into offices for his next major project. Having partnered with J. Arthur Rank, an industrialist who was about to start his own film production company, as well as other major investors, the 100 acres of tree-filled land behind the mansion would be the site of their own large film studio. The trees would inspire the name “Pinewood,” but they would be all removed to start construction. On September 30, 1936, the studio opened with five sound stages and a 300,000 Liter tank at a cost of £1 million, or £75.2 million in 2022 money.
The first films to use Pinewood Studios were the musical London Melody and the crime drama Talk of the Devil directed by future Oscar winner Carol Reed. From the beginning, the purpose of Pinewood was to copy Hollywood and use a system that permitted multiple pictures to be shot at the same time, which made Pinewood the studio with the most pictures produced at any location annually. During the Second World War, Pinewood was the home to the military’s film units, including the production of the Oscar-winning documentary Desert Victory, which Hollywood copied for their own wartime documentaries.
When the war ended and normal operation resumed, the classics began to utilize the soundstages that no other place provided. One was David Lean’s adaptation of Oliver Twist (1948) and the other was The Red Shoes by Powell & Pressburger, acclaimed today for its achievement with gorgeous color cinematography and ballet sequences which were filmed in part at Pinewood. However, other films produced at Pinewood failed financially, putting J. Arthur Rank’s company which used the studio mostly in financial doubt. Then, in 1962, Pinewood was picked to shoot scenes for Dr. No and would be the site for all James Bond productions since. Their success and production growth required expansion of the entire studio and the adaptation of the four walls system.
The growth of Pinewood attracted bigger projects from Hollywood to London in the late 60s and throughout the 70s including Fiddler On The Roof, The Day Of The Jackal, The Man Who Would Be King, and Alien (and its sequels). The world-famous 007 Stage was constructed twice; first in 1976; which was later burned down in a production accident in 1984, and then in 2006 when another fire started following completion of Casino Royale. The current soundstage, named after Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli, is one of the largest in the world and the biggest in Europe, filling up 59,000 sq ft. This expansion has been used by more productions including Mission: Impossible, The Da Vinci Code, Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and Solo: A Star Wars Story.
In 2001, the Rank Group, which had owned Pinewood since the beginning, sold the studio to a consortium led by Ridley and Tony Scott called Pinewood Group Ltd. Along with Pinewood Studios, the company also owns movie studios around the world. Besides the James Bond franchise, Pinewood is now being leased primarily to Walt Disney Studios for the next decade which has already used it for Eternals, Black Widow, The Marvels, and the upcoming live-action version of The Little Mermaid. Nearly 90 years after opening, the importance of Pinewood being built is a testament to keeping cinema flourishing in the UK and giving an alternative to traditional Hollywood stages.
