100-year-old cinema studio to get £15million makeover

TWICKENHAM Studios has unveiled a £15m investment plan to rejuvenate the business.

The money has been put into the 100-year-old site by The Creative District Improvement Company, owned by producers Piers Read and Jeremy Rainbird.

The pair took over the premises last February before coronavirus put the UK film industry on hold.

The investment will be used to build a TV studio, cuttingedge sound production studios and some offices.

Planning application has been submitted to Richmond Council and building is expected to begin later this year and completed by October 2022. Read and

Rainbird decided to invest in the studios as US streaming giants like Netflix, Apple and Amazon look for more space in the UK. Read said: ‘Twickenham Studios is a much-loved studio, a world-renowned heritage brand and a fantastic trading company as well.’ Its sound studios were used for Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody and Sam Mendes’s 1917. Other films to have used the facilities over the years include Layer Cake (starring Daniel Craig and Sienna Miller, right), War Horse and Blade Runner (starring Rutger

Hauer, left). The Creative District Improvement Company is aiming to develop new studios around the country. The firm has also invested in Littlewood Film Studios in Liverpool.

Cara Sheppard, managing director at Twickenham Film Studios, said it had a ‘rich heritage, having made some of history’s most iconic Hollywood and British films and TV shows’. She added: ‘The redevelopment is such an important turning point – the significant investment in the regeneration and expansion of the site and its facilities will enhance our whole studio campus.’