Pinewood Studios (since at least 1934) is a British film company that has spent over 70 years producing 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 James Bond movies, the Doctor In The House film series, the Carry On... 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 (and a street named after Stanley Kubrick).
Notable films and TV shows that were filmed with 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)
- Carry On... (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)
- 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)
- Bond 25 (2020)
- Cleopatra (1963)
- The Ipcress File (1965)
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- Krull (1983)
- Top Secret! (1984)
- Santa Claus: The Movie (1985)
- King David (1985)
- Legend (1985)
- Spies Like Us (1985)
- Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
- Hellraiser (1987)
- Full Metal Jacket (1987)
- Batman (began 1989)
- Patriot Games (1992)
- Mission: Impossible (1996)
- The Saint (1997)
- Event Horizon (1997)
- The Fifth Element (1997)
- Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
- Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
- 28 Days Later (2002)
- Love Actually (2003)
- Finding Neverland (2004)
- King Arthur (2004)
- The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
- Nanny McPhee (2005)
- United93 (2006)
- The IT Crowd (television) (2006—2013)
- Stardust (2006)
- The Da Vinci Code (2006)
- Children of Men (2006)
- 1408 (2007)
- Fred Claus (2007)
- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
- The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
- Mamma Mia! (2008)
- The Bank Job (2008)
- Sherlock Holmes (2009)
- Prince of Persia (2010)
- The Wolfman (2010) (2010)
- Gulliver's Travels (2010) (2010)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2010 and 2011)
- Kick-Ass (2010)
- Hugo (2011)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)
- Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
- Johnny English Reborn (2011)
- My Week with Marilyn (2011)
- X-Men: First Class (2011)
- Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
- The Iron Lady (2011)
- Dark Shadows (2012)
- Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)
- The Hobbit trilogy
- Les Misérables (2012)
- Gravity (2013)
- 47 Ronin (2013)
- Dom Hemingway (2013)
- Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)
- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
- Muppets Most Wanted (2014)
- Maleficent (2014)
- Ant-Man (2015)
- Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
- Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)
- Cinderella (2015)
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
- Doctor Strange (2016)
