Pinewood Studios (inaugurated in 1936) is a British film company that has spent over 70 years housing the production of popular films and television shows. It began as a country club in Buckinghamshire inside a building built like a Victorian house before being bought by a businessman named Charles Boot and turned it into a film studio with the help of J. Arthur Rank (the man behind The Rank Organisation), renaming the place Pinewood because of the forest nearby.
The first films that were made there were mostly war movies because of World War II that was happening at the time but the films that managed to be very successful at the time were Oliver Twist and The Red Shoes (1948). Because of the Rank Organisation's budget restrictions, promotional material became hard to develop but the company earned back their budget from the box-office smashes in the late 1940s.
The studios continued with its success throughout the rest of the 20th century. It had become the home of many Eon Productions James Bond movies, the Doctor in the House film series, the Carry On... Series film series, the Superman films and some of the Batman movies.
In the mid-1990s, the Rank Organisation defuncted but still continued to own them until 2001. In the meantime, Pinewood formed their own studio group called The Pinewood Studios Group and created 2 other studio bases in England (in Shepperton and Teddington) as well as worldwide (in Atlanta in the US, in Toronto, in Berlin, in Malaysia, in Dominican Republic and a home-base in Los Angeles). To this day, Pinewood Studios continues to be successful, being the home of many movies and TV shows that are very well-known, many of which they are very proud of.
If you take part in one of their studio tours, you'll find that the studios have paid tribute to many of their films. Most notably, there is a 007 stage where they film scenes for the James Bond films and certain streets in the studios are named after many of their popular movies. There's also a street named after Stanley Kubrick.
Notable films and TV shows that were filmed at Pinewood include:
- Black Narcissus (1947)
- Oliver Twist (1948)
- The Red Shoes (1948)
- The Blue Lagoon (1949)
- The Importance of Being Earnest (1952)
- Doctor in the House film series (starting 1954)
- Hell Drivers (1957)
- The Prince and the Showgirl (1957)
- Carry On... Series (began in 1958)
- Carry On, Sergeant (1958)
- Carry On Nurse (1958)
- Carry On Teacher (1959)
- Carry On Constable (1960)
- Carry On Regardless (1961)
- Carry On Cruising (1962)
- Carry On Cabby (1963)
- Carry On Jack (1963)
- Carry On Spying (1964)
- Carry On Cleo (1964)
- Carry On Cowboy (1965)
- Carry On Screaming! (1966)
- Don't Lose Your Head (1966)
- Follow That Camel! (1967)
- Carry On Doctor (1967)
- Carry On... Up the Khyber (1968)
- Carry On Camping (1969)
- Carry On Again, Doctor (1969)
- Carry On Up the Jungle (1970)
- Carry On Loving (1970)
- Carry On Henry (1971)
- Carry On at Your Convenience (1971)
- Carry On Matron (1972)
- Carry On Abroad (1972)
- Carry On Girls (1973)
- Carry On Dick (1974)
- Carry On Behind (1975)
- Carry On England (1976)
- That's Carry On! (1977)
- Carry On Emmannuelle (1978)
- Carry On Columbus (1992)
- A Night to Remember (1958)
- North West Frontier (1959)
- Tiger Bay (1959)
- The League of Gentlemen (1960)
- Peeping Tom (1960)
- Whistle Down the Wind (1961)
- James Bond film series (began 1962) note
- Dr. No (1962)
- From Russia with Love (1963)
- Goldfinger (1964)
- Thunderball (1965)
- You Only Live Twice (1967)
- On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
- Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
- Live and Let Die (1973)
- The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
- The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
- For Your Eyes Only (1981)
- Octopussy (1983)
- A View to a Kill (1985)
- The Living Daylights (1987)
- Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
- The World Is Not Enough (1999)
- Die Another Day (2002)
- Casino Royale (2006)
- Quantum of Solace (2008)
- Skyfall (2012)
- Spectre (2015)
- No Time to Die (2021)
- Cleopatra (1963)
- The Ipcress File (1965)
- The Fighting Prince of Donegal (1966)
- Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
- Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968)
- Battle of Britain (1969)
- The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
- The Persuaders! (television) (1970–71)
- 200 Motels (1971)
- Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
- Frenzy (1972)
- Sleuth (1972)
- The Amazing Mr. Blunden (1972)
- Emmerdale (television) (1972)
- The Day of the Jackal (1973)
- Brief Encounter (1974)
- The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
- Space: 1999 (television) (1975–1977)
- Bugsy Malone (1976)
- ''Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977)
- Death on the Nile (1978)
- Superman series (began 1978)
- Superman (1978)
- Superman II (1979)
- Superman III (1980)
- Supergirl (1984)
- Alien series (began 1979)
- Alien (1979)
- Aliens (1986)
- Alien³ (1992)
- Prometheus (2012)
- The Watcher in the Woods (1980)
- Dragonslayer (1981)
- Clash of the Titans (1981)
- Victor/Victoria (1982)
- The Wall (1982)
- Curse of the Pink Panther (1983)
- Krull (1983)
- Top Secret! (1984)
- King David (1985)
- Legend (1985)
- Santa Claus: The Movie (1985)
- Spies Like Us (1985)
- Hellraiser (1987)
- Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
- Full Metal Jacket (1987)
- Batman Film Series:
- Nightbreed (1990)
- Patriot Games (1992)
- Black Beauty (1994)
- Interview with the Vampire (1994)
- First Knight (1995)
- Mission: Impossible (1996)
- Event Horizon (1997)
- The Fifth Element (1997)
- The Saint (1997)
- Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
- Jesus Christ Superstar (2000)
- Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
- 28 Days Later (2002)
- The Hours (2002)
- Love Actually (2003)
- Alexander (2004)
- Finding Neverland (2004)
- King Arthur (2004)
- The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
- Nanny McPhee (2005)
- Children of Men (2006)
- The Da Vinci Code (2006)
- The IT Crowd (television) (2006—2013)
- United93 (2006)
- 1408 (2007)
- The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
- Fred Claus (2007)
- Stardust (2007)
- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
- The Bank Job (2008)
- Mamma Mia! (2008)
- The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)
- Sherlock Holmes (2009)
- Clash of the Titans (2010)
- Gulliver's Travels (2010) (2010)
- Prince of Persia (2010)
- The Wolfman (2010) (2010)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2010 and 2011)
- Kick-Ass (2010)
- You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)
- Hugo (2011)
- The Iron Lady (2011)
- Johnny English Reborn (2011)
- My Week with Marilyn (2011)
- Marvel Cinematic Universe (began 2011)
- Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
- Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
- Doctor Strange (2016)
- Black Widow (2021) (2021)
- Eternals (2021)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)
- Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
- X-Men: First Class (2011)
- Dark Shadows (2012)
- The Hobbit trilogy
- Les Misérables (2012)
- Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)
- 47 Ronin (2013)
- Dom Hemingway (2013)
- Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)
- Gravity (2013)
- Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)
- Maleficent (2014)
- Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019)
- Muppets Most Wanted (2014)
- Vampire Academy (2014)
- Cinderella (2015)
- Everest (2015)
- Ex Machina (2015)
- Star Wars:
- The Force Awakens (2015)
- Rogue One (2016)
- The Last Jedi (2017)
- Solo (2018)
- The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
- Victor Frankenstein (2015)
- Assassin's Creed (2016)
- Me Before You (2016)
- Mechanic Resurrection (2016)
- Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)
- Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)
- The Commuter (2019)
- Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
- The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018)
- Mary Poppins Returns (2018)
- Mary, Queen of Scots (2018)
- Stan & Ollie (2018)
- Forty Seven Meters Down Uncaged (2019)
- Dumbo (2019)
- The Informer (2019)
