As cinemas shut and streaming booms, real estate developers are spending millions on Hollywood-style lots
The coronavirus pandemic may have shut cinemas and choked off the supply of new films and TV shows, but developers are banking on the streaming boom by pouring hundreds of millions of pounds into building Hollywood-style studios in the UK.
This week, Dagenham council struck a £300m deal to build a studio in east London that is expected to welcome its first TV and film productions as soon as mid-2022. “We will become London’s Hollywood,” says Darren Rodwell, the leader of the Barking and Dagenham council, who has toiled for the last four years to make the project a reality.
