Amazon MGM Studios is buying the U.Ok.’s Bray Movie Studios, the historic website it not too long ago arrange as a manufacturing hub for the second season of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.”
The deal marks Amazon’s first acquisition of a bodily studio within the U.Ok., with Bray set for use for brand new and persevering with TV sequence and have movies. In early 2022, Prime Video signed a multimillion greenback long-term lease at Shepperton Studios. Within the U.S., Amazon owns The Culver Studios in Culver Metropolis, California.
The acquisition of Bray Movie Studios, round 26 miles from central London, consists of roughly 53,600 sq. toes of sound stage house throughout 5 levels, 77,400 sq. toes of workshops, 39,400 sq. toes of workplace, 182,900 sq. toes of backlot and 156,000 sq. toes of parking house. The primary manufacturing to be positioned there following the acquisition would be the second season of the Russo Brothers’ spy sequence “Citadel,” starring Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, which is scheduled to start filming in September.
“With Bray as our artistic residence within the U.Ok., we’re dedicated to deepening {our relationships} with the U.Ok. artistic neighborhood, which is wealthy with world-class storytellers and artistic expertise of all types,” mentioned Mike Hopkins, head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios. “The acquisition of a studio with such a storied heritage not solely empowers us to supply extra movie and tv within the U.Ok., but additionally unveils a wealth of alternatives in the area people with respect to jobs and expertise coaching in any respect ranges of the manufacturing course of.”
Added Frank Burke, chairman of Bray Movie Studios Ltd, “For 70 plus years, Bray Studios has held an necessary place within the historical past of British filmmaking. Throughout our interval of possession, I, along with my household and staff have witnessed the rebirth of this iconic facility and we’re extraordinarily pleased with the half we’ve got been capable of play in bringing it to renewed prominence. We are actually genuinely excited to be handing the studios over to Amazon, who we consider share our dedication to high quality and excellence and are completely suited to preserving the character of the studio whereas enhancing the first-class artistic manufacturing areas for generations of filmmakers to come back.”
Bray Studios, positioned in Water Oakley, Berkshire, has a filmmaking heritage that dates again to 1951, when Brit horror icons Hammer Movies made the property on which it’s constructed its everlasting residence. Hammer constructed a studio and would movie dozens of movies — together with the Christopher Lee-starring 1957 cult basic “Dracula” — at Bray earlier than the corporate relocated to Elstree in 1966. Within the Nineteen Seventies, it was greatest recognized for being the location the place fashions and miniatures for Ridley Scott’s “Alien,” together with the Nostromo house ship, have been created and shot, whereas within the ’80s and ’90s it was largely used as a music house, the place the final rehearsal of the unique Led Zeppelin band lineup passed off and a pre-concert rehearsal for the Freddie Mercury Tribute Live performance for AIDS Consciousness. After a interval of inactivity, filmmaking started once more in 2017 with hit BBC sequence “Bodyguard,” adopted by the Oscar-winning Elton John biopic “Rocketman.” The second season of “The Rings of Energy” started capturing at Bray in October 2022.
“From ‘Rocketman’ to ‘The Rocky Horror Image Present,’ for 70 years Bray Studios has introduced us a few of cinema’s most iconic moments,” mentioned U.Ok. tradition secretary Lisa Nandy. “We’re decided to assist the large potential for financial development in our artistic industries. We need to do all we are able to to assist be certain profession alternatives in these thrilling sectors can be found for folks from all backgrounds proper throughout the U.Ok. This vote of confidence by Amazon MGM Studios will be sure that certainly one of our main movie studios continues to play a vital function in our first-class display industries. It can ship a serious funding in expertise and infrastructure to reinforce our standing as Europe’s high filmmaking vacation spot.”
