11.03
If Pinewood Studios already had the expansion capacity The West Midlands can provide with ease, and if Pinewood Shepperton PLC was expanding into every county in the UK to become a superbrand THEN it would corner this work much more easily.
http://www.digitalproductionme.com/article-1953-qatari_media_group_launches_200m_film_fund/
Qatari media group Alnoor Holdings launched officially during the Doha Tribeca Film Festival with the announcement of a US $200m film fund.
The company intends to finance 15 movies for the international market during a five-year period with the stated aim of making “the best potential returns involving Hollywood talent”.
“We have made significant commitments in terms of investment, acquisition of media content and human resources to move forward rapidly and are confident we will satisfy a sizeable audience in a very short timeframe,” said Ahmed Al-Hashemi, chairman of Alnoor Holdings.
The fund is the second largest of its kind in the Middle East after the $1 billion Imagenation Abu Dhabi finance body.
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For a nation which is overflowing with liquid gas and which will be by 2012 supplying the electricity source for most readers, $200 million is a token of the money that can come into the film industry. They could, if they like their early experience, become the biggest financiers on the planet within 4 years.
If this ends up in the state-of-the-art French studio, Eastern European, or Pinewood’s Canadian (and planned Chinese and Malaysian Studios) then British based film workers with families can expect to be rarely at home with their families especially if they have children in schools. Most can just expect to find non-film industry jobs.
Winning this work is crucial and needs a national effort and best use of national resources.
The more capacity, the better the facilities, the cheaper the prices that Pinewood can offer in The UK, then the more of this huge potential film finance can flow into The UK.
If it works, they have infinite sums to follow a profitable path. But $200 million for 15 films is not going to look that special on screen unless the cost savings The UK can potentially provide are seriously and urgently implemented.
While Pinewood are over-directing money they do not have, and management energy they can not spare on chasing planning permission on a piece of greenbelt land they will not get, the whole thing can be built much bigger, quicker and better elsewhere in The UK.
Although the upfront bunce of £200 million from developers wanting to build the 1400 houses would flood in the minute they got planning permission in Iver Heath (which they will not), their own claim is that they will not have Project Pinewood built there until 2020. By this stage the present directors will probably have moved on, retired, just not be there. The work will have long since relocated everywhere else except The UK.
The Project Pinewood expansion in The West Midlands can be built much better and much much quicker. If at the same time as the major infrastructure in The West Midlands they put a 15 acre site in every county in the UK aided by local regeneration funds, then Pinewood Studios have over 50% of film factory facilities in the world. This can all be done in time to catch the monies that can flow from Qatar as we all end up dependent on their liquid gas for our electricity.
If reading more about liquid gas and energy is your thing, then read Dr Richard North here as he has posted over 160 items on it:
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2009/09/that-dash-for-gas.html
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2009/09/coming-together.html
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/search/label/electricity
Film manufacturing infrastructure can give Britain a HUGE geo-political punch if we woo those with the money and energy of the coming years into our sphere of influence.
It is just too stupid to throw this way over a doomed greenbelt planning application when a super-abundance of ex-industrial land is available and screaming to be used COMPLETE with regeneration funds.
This looks great in Sunday newspaper magazines http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1223578/Want-live-film-set-How-Hollywood-bringing-New-Orleans-Paris-Berlin-location-near-you.html
but it will not happen on greenbelt land in Iver Heath:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118010218.html?categoryid=13&cs=1
http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/4696333.Councillor__we_ll_fight_any_Pinewood_appeal/
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/world/news/e3ib38cebd2d45985dd054cec050925a180
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/8319822.stm
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/news/a183190/pinewood-expansion-plans-rejected.html
http://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/news/article-13364-pinewood-studios-homes-bid-rejected/
It will not happen in Iver Heath but can happen almost anywhere in The West Midlands almost overnight.
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/136065/Film-set-role-for-car-plant
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/8320396.stm
http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/MG-TF/244315/
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118010218.html?categoryid=13&cs=1
Project Pinewood will not expand on greenbelt no matter how many more millions are spent on PR; millions which Pinewood Shepperton PLC incidentally do not have. A company whose stock market valuation is under £60 million, making a turnover of well under £50 million, and profits maybe under £2 million and falling hard, should not normally expect to have a creditline from three banks of £200 million for expansion on greenbelt land they will not get.
Qatar would be much happier with the figures Pinewood Studios could offer if they were already up and running in The West Midlands and thereafter other parts of The UK.
Jonathan Stuart-Brown
www.savethebritishfilmindustry.com
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