Ealing Studios adds 25,000 sq. ft.
by Annika Pham
The historical Ealing Studios in West London is this month going to start building the second phase of its ambitious £50m redevelopment programme of multi-media office space to boost their activities as a production facility and company.
When works will be completed in a year’s time, 25,000 square feet of extra space will be available for film, TV and media companies. The first phase of the studios’ construction programme was completed in 2003 and included three, 35,000 square-foot buildings that 20 companies established as their headquarters.
The entire redevelopment project was initiated by UK property company Manhattan Loft Corporation, who bought Ealing Studios in 2000 with UK production house Fragile Films. Their aim was to retain and upgrade the original 1930s sound stages as the core facility and then build around those new support buildings (included in phases one and two), complete with a circular court with a retractable fabric roof (scheduled for the final part, phase three). In total, the studios will provide approximately 130,000 square feet of space.
Famous for its Ealing comedies produced from the late 1930s to the1950s, the studios have recently provided facilities for high-profile films such as Notting Hill, Star Wars: Episode II, Woody Allen’s yet untitled new film starring Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell, and Death Defying Acts starring Catherine Zeta Jones and Guy Pearce.
As a production studio, Ealing went back to making films in 2002 with Oliver Parker’s The Importance of Being Earnest, the first title to be made under the Ealing banner since 1959.
In 2005, the Studios secured £1.2 m of development funding from the UK Film Council for its own and other producers’ films. That same year, Ealing co-produced the highly successful CGI animated feature Valiant. film Among its upcoming productions to be released in 2007 are Oliver Parker’s Fade to Black (starring Diego Luna and Paz Vega) and the comedy I Want Candy, co-scripted by Peter Hewitt (The Borrowers). The next project in the pipeline is St Trinian’s, starring Rupert Everett.
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