Warner Bros. plans to buy Leavesden Studios

by Liam Goodwin on January 27, 2010 · 4 comments

Great HallThe United States may be getting their very own Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but it looks like the UK will be keeping the sets! According to the Financial Times Warner Bros. will this week register plans to establish a permanent base at Leavesden Studios in the UK as part of an estimated £100m ($161m)-plus investment that would make it the only major Hollywood studio to own a studio outside the US. Leavesden Studios has been home to the Harry Potter films since it all began over a decade ago, and the current plan is to allow members of the public to visit (by appointment) sets of films, including the great hall.

The new plans involve building two new permanent stages, refurbishing the existing buildings and redesigning its 100-acre “backlot”, the area used for shooting outdoor scenes.

A person familiar with the plans said Warner Brothers wants to make Leavesden a European hub for post-production, including visual effects, animatronics and film editing in the UK, and believes that it will attract film business to the country.

The Dark Knight and Batman Begins were also filmed at Leavesden Studios, so Batman 3 will most likely be heading back there when they get round to filming.

  • http://www.savethebritishfilmindustry.com/ Jonathan Stuart-Brown

    There will be a huge rush of Hollywood Studios buying EU premises and building film factory production facilities. The coming draconian EU laws which will ban non EU product from over 50% of all EU cinema screens mean they have to in order to protect their markets. This gives The UK a huge opportunity to get every Hollywood Studio based here, and can lead to over 50% of total Hollywood production and investment here. However, only Gisela Stuart MP is clued into this and very pro-active. The main three parties are snoozing and blind to this unique opportunity which demands action. It is a feelgood story. It is about lots of jobs and inward investment, and will turbo charge UK tourism revenue. If missed, the studios apart from Warners will be nailed down in France, Germany, Italy, Spain etc. Only Gisela Stuart MP is on the ball and The Prime Minister should promote her to Culture Minister, Creative Arts Minister because in 8 weeks before the election she could get these studios negotiating to come to The UK. The world wants to buy little from Britain (except creative and tourism industry product) so we need to go for this.
    Jonathan Stuart-Brown
    http://www.savethebritishfilmindustry.com

  • ruth

    This guy Jonathan is a fool …………what the hell was he smoking when he wrote this comment?? He is defo on cloud 9!

    Ruth

  • sharkman

    Batman Begins was filmed at shepperton, and a hanger at Cardington, plus on location in chicago.
    someof the Dark Knight production office was based at leavesden studio, but it was NOT filmed there.
    I guess when the potter films finish there will a need to use the studios for other productions.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ORJK3UYFIZGVUFZ4Z5YA3WRO6I jonathan

    At least Warners invest in film sound stages and post-production which The UKFC never did.
    However the UKFC unintentionally gave us a great party game.
    http://www.savethebritishfilmindustry.com/2010/08/which-of-these-did-not-sign-the-letter-to-the-telegraph-seeking-to-save-the-evil-uk-film-council/