Shepperton Studios
Shepperton Studios, located in
Shepperton,
Middlesex,
England is a film studio with a long history of film making.
Film history began at Shepperton Studios in
1931, when
Norman Loudon, a dynamic
Scottish businessman, bought
Littleton Park with its surrounding 60 acre (240,000 m²) grounds, which included a beautiful stretch of the
River Ash at
Shepperton. Loudon was new to the film industry, but he had had a prosperous camera business, Flicker Productions, which manufactured small `flicker' books of photographs, which gave an impression of movement when the pages were flicked with the thumb. Littleton Park seemed ideal when Loudon decided the next step was to enter film production, and a new company, Sound City Film Producing & Recording Studios, was founded in
1932. By the of the year Sound City had produced three shorts for
MGM and two features,
Watch Beverley (
1932) and
Reunion (
1932).
By the end of
1934, demand for Sound City facilities necessitated substantial expansion. In
1936, after a short period of closure for modernisation, the studios reopened with seven
sound stages, twelve cutting rooms, three viewing theatres, scene docks and workshops, while the old house was refurbished to provide hotel and restaurant facilities. Probably one of the best-remembered films from Sound City in the 1930s was
French Without Tears (
1939), based on a play by
Terence Rattigan with a screenplay by
Anatole de Grunwald.
With the outbreak of
World War II, the
War Office considered Shepperton Studios a safe location as it was 14 miles from the centre of
London. However, they had failed to consider that the huge
Vickers-Armstrong aircraft factory was producing
Spitfires and
Wellington bombers a few miles across the river and was a prime target for the
German air raids. Filming was constantly interrupted and stray bombs fell into the studio grounds. After the nearby factory was hit, the
Ministry of Defence immediately requisitioned Shepperton Studios, and put the skills of its craftsmen to good use creating replicas of aircraft that were to be used in the
Middle East as decoys, plus fake guns and landing strips.
In
1945, Norman Loudon announced the re-opening of Sound City's six-stage studio, although he was to retire from the film industry within 12 months. In the same year, Sir
Alexander Korda severed what had been a brief connection with MGM, and brought
London Film Productions. London Films then purchased the controlling interest in
British Lion Films, and in
1946 acquired a 74 per cent controlling interest in Sound City (Films) Limited for £380,000, together with its studios at Shepperton. Sound City (Films) Limited was renamed the British Lion Studio Company. British Lion was now in a position to become a powerful post-war factor in British film production.
One of the earliest films made at Shepperton under the new regime was an adaptation of
Oscar Wilde's
An Ideal Husband (
1947), produced and directed by Alexander Korda. During the
1940s Sir Alexander Korda managed to obtain a long-term loan that amounted to £3,000,000 for film production from the
National Film Finance Corporation (NFFC). However, British Lion incurred high production losses in
1950, and the financial crisis reached a peak in
1954 when the NFFC called in their loan, appointing a receiver and manager.
British Lion Films Limited was formed in
1955 to take over the assets of its insolvent predecessor.
The new company's main function was not film production but the provision of distribution and financial guarantees for independent producers. Among those appointed to a re-organised board of directors were practical film-makers such as
Roy and
John Boulting,
Frank Launder and
Sidney Gilliat, all of whom were to make a number of films at the studios. These included Sidney Gilliat's
The Constant Husband (
1954) and
Left, Right And Centre (
1959) ;
Frank Launder's
Geordie (
1955) and
Blue Murder at St Trinian's (
1957); the Boulting Brother's
Seven Days To Noon (
1950),
Private's Progress (
1956) and
I'm All Right Jack (
1959). The films made at Shepperton in the
1950s and
1960s reflected the influence of the strong independent producers and directors who used the studios, rather than the paternal dominance of former head Alexander Korda.
Richard Attenborough and
Bryan Forbes arrived to create
Beaver Films, and adopted a new policy of deferred payment for the artists which enabled the film
The Angry Silence (
1960) to be made for the astonishingly-low sum of £97,000. Bryan Forbes went on to write and direct another Shepperton production in
1962,
The L-Shaped Room (
1962), produced by Richard Attenborough and
James Woolf.
The Angry Silence and
The L Shaped Room were examples of films that echoed the social and economic changes that had stirred the late 1950s and 1960s, and reality became the essence of the `New Wave' school. Films of this genre made at Shepperton included
Room At The Top (
1958), directed by
Jack Clayton;
John Schlesinger's
A Kind Of Loving (
1962);
Billy Liar (
1963) and
Darling (
1965). Early in 1961, there was a new departure as British Lion and Columbia formed BLC Films to be responsible for marketing the films of both companies in the UK, an arrangement that lasted until
1967. In
1963, the company announced that £600,000 of the Government loan had been paid off.
However, in
1964, the Government sold the company back into private enterprise to a group headed by
Michael Balcon. Profits dropped in the first year and in 1965 Lord Goodman succeeded Balcon as chairman. Nevertheless, a number of notable films were produced at the studio during that decade including two
Pink Panther films and
The Day Of The Jackal (
1973) directed by
Fred Zinnemann. In
1978,
The Who shot mock concert sequences, live and in front of an audience, for their documentary
The Kids Are Alright. This would turn out to be The Who's last live appearance with drummer
Keith Moon, who died later that year. In
1978-
9 there was tight security on the stages at Shepperton for
Alien (
1979), a
science fiction film with a difference directed by
Ridley Scott. From
1970, Richard Attenborough made some of his finest films at Shepperton; these included
Young Winston (
1972),
Gandhi (
1982) and
Cry Freedom (
1987). In
1984, the manor of Littleton acquired a new owner when
Lee International paid £3.6m for the studios. The Lee Group invested a considerable sum of money in refurbishing the facilities, and plans were drawn up for new workshops that were built in
1987.
Excellent films continued to be made at Shepperton during the
1980s such as
The Elephant Man (
1980),
The Missionary (
1982),
The Company of Wolves (
1984),
A Passage To India (
1984) and
Kenneth Branagh's first film production,
Henry V (
1989). Also among the
1980s productions at the studios were
Privates On Parade (
1982) and
Michael Radford's film of the
George Orwell novel
Nineteen Eighty-Four (filmed in its
title year). The
1990s saw
Neil Jordan's
Oscar winner,
The Crying Game (
1992);
Louis Matte's
Damage (
1992); Kenneth Branagh's
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (
1994) and
Nicholas Hytner's award winning
The Madness of King George (1994) , Lord Attenborough's
Chaplin (
1992) and
Shadowlands (
1993).
The Scott brothers,
Ridley and
Tony, acquired Shepperton in
January 1995.
In
2001,
Pinewood Studios, famed for its
James Bond movies, bought Shepperton Studios to enable the joint company to attract big-budget film-makers. The two studios continue to retain their individual trading identities despite the merger, but will be under common ownership and management. In 2004 Pinewood Shepperton floated successfully on the London Stock Exchange. In 2005 Pinewood Shepperton acquired
Teddington Studios. Collectively the company now has 41 stages, including 6 digital tv studios, audio post facilities, preview theatres, backlots, gardens & woodland for outdoor shooting, one of Europe's largest exterior water tanks, and a dedicated underwater stage.
*
Pinewood Studios*
Sohonet*
Pinewood Shepperton official website
