{"id":85797,"date":"2025-05-08T22:56:19","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T22:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/85797\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T22:56:19","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T22:56:19","slug":"how-london-became-the-new-hollywood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/85797\/","title":{"rendered":"How London Became the New Hollywood"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tRumor has it that when London<\/a>\u2018s luxury hotel Chiltern Firehouse erupted in flames in February, most of its high-profile clientele spilling out onto the streets weren\u2019t well-heeled Brits \u2014 they were from Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe venue was set to host Netflix\u2019s BAFTA awards party that weekend \u2014 with attendees including Zoe Salda\u00f1a, Leonardo DiCaprio, Demi Moore, Adrien Brody and Colman Domingo \u2014 but a rogue strip of wood falling from a pizza oven led to a change of plans. More than 100 firefighters descended on the celebrity hotspot in Marylebone, owned by Chateau Marmont proprietor Andr\u00e9 Balazs. The hotel incurred major damage, but no injuries were reported. But it\u2019s a suitable metaphor: London is ablaze.<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom the many state-of-the-art shooting facilities running at full capacity (millions of square feet of soundstage space combined) to a tax incentive scheme that saves producers millions and a progressive environment that is literally a world away from the daily onslaught of President Trump\u2019s draconian policy decrees (not to mention the chaos unleashed on travel), London is, as one insider puts it, \u201cmore Hollywood than Hollywood.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2024, media agency Film London estimated that about \u00a39.5 billion ($12.7 billion) is set to be invested in the city for production during the next five years. The global hubs of Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and Disney continue to expand their U.K. offices as studios like Pinewood (home to 12 MCU blockbusters) and Ealing are fully booked out. Some of the biggest players in the production world right now \u2014 think Working Title, Protagonist Pictures and All3Media \u2014 are headquartered in London. British and Irish talent dominate in front of and behind the camera. And to those working in the U.K. capital\u2019s entertainment industry, this tidbit of insider tattle may not come as a surprise. It\u2019s not just cost savings and the Trump effect; Tinseltown has lost much of its luster.<\/p>\n

\n\tOnce the global hub of film, wealth and glamour, L.A., more than any other city, has become a casualty of the worldwide production plunge. Hollywood film and TV production have taken a momentous hit, with U.S. productions across the board down some 40 percent from pre-strike levels in 2022. But in the U.K., production revenue in 2024 topped \u00a35.6 billion ($7.4 billion), a 31 percent increase from the previous year, according to the British Film Institute\u2019s research and statistics unit.<\/p>\n

\n\tShooting levels in California, reeling from budget reductions across most studios and streamers, last year fell to their lowest level observed by FilmLA since it started tracking the data in 2017 (excluding 2020 at the height of the pandemic).<\/p>\n

\n\tThough they only tore through 1.3 percent of the city\u2019s filming locations, the L.A. wildfires put even more projects on pause. \u201cIt just doesn\u2019t make sense when you do the math,\u201d a top streaming executive says, adding that entire soundstages on L.A. lots are sitting idle.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd while California Gov. Gavin Newsom tries to push through the expansion of the state\u2019s Film and Television Tax Credit program to $750 million annually, he now has his hands full with Trump\u2019s spate of upending tariffs, the latest of which has baffled an entire industry. His 100 percent tariff proposal on all movies coming into the U.S. that are \u201cproduced in foreign lands\u201d has, naturally, prompted more questions than answers. What about co-productions? Does this apply to U.S. productions already underway outside of the States? Marvel, for example, has kicked off their hotly anticipated Avengers: Doomsday in London.<\/p>\n

\n\tLuckily, a U.K.-U.S. trade deal was struck early Thursday morning \u2014 the first major trade deal of Trump\u2019s second term \u2014\u00a0with both British prime minister Keir Starmer and the President lauding the countries\u2019 allyship.<\/p>\n

\n\tStarmer, dialling into the Oval Office news conference via phone, called it a \u201cfantastic, historic day,\u201d while Trump described it as a much-needed \u201cwin\u201d. The vague rhetoric coming from both leaders was indicative of the breadth of detail outlined; though major talking points include a removal of the 25 percent tariff on U.K. steel and aluminium, as well as car export cuts and chopping the tariff on ethanol for U.S. goods,\u00a0Trump\u2019s plan to slap a 100 percent tariff on British-made movies was not addressed in the hours after the deal was formally announced. In other words: we wait.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere is one thing Trump\u2019s right about: Hollywood is facing a \u201cvery fast death.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is where the U.K. comes in. Sources tell THR that Hollywood producers are gravitating to London to shoot, write and even permanently live. It helps that the population of an overwhelmingly left-leaning industry is mortified by Trump\u2019s re-election (one lawyer says her Oscar-winning client who has relocated to Britain was almost entirely motivated by Trump\u2019s return to The White House), but the biggest incentive is interminably alluring: money.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe tax breaks from the U.K. are among the best in the world. Until 2034, film and TV producers seeking to shoot in the U.K. can receive a 40 percent reduction on their final bill as of this year. The Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit provides them with a tax credit worth 34 percent of their U.K. production costs, and as of April 1, filmmakers can claim a credit of 39 percent on their visual effects costs. Indie films with budgets of less than \u00a315 million ($20 million) can claim a whopping 53 percent back thanks to the new Independent Film Tax Credit, in place since October.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn laymen\u2019s terms, it\u2019s cheaper: The tax relief is greater, and this means that studios can recoup the money they lose elsewhere (Disney, for example, is reported to have received more than a third of a billion dollars in U.K. tax credits the past decade). After taxes, Hollywood producers in Britain can claw back a net 20 percent of the cost of the production. And crucially, U.S. nationals are not required to pay double tax: They offset the American tax using what they already paid to the U.K.<\/p>\n

\n\tSure, it\u2019s cheaper to film in Australia, too, and Spain, especially \u2014 Netflix has just made Madrid\u2019s Secuoya Studios its European hub for production \u2014 but there is another benefit to shooting in London that goes beyond money: infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve been blown away,\u201d says Shadowbox Studios COO Mike Mosallam of the facilities at his company\u2019s state-of-the-art Shinfield Studios. Perched just outside London, Shinfield was established in 2021 and became fully operational in June.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe facility, which boasts nearly 1 million square feet of studio space, including 18 purpose-built soundstages, is emblematic of the shooting boom in the U.K. Now at capacity, the studio has played host to a number of high-profile Hollywood titles, including Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Disney\u2019s Star Wars spinoff Andor<\/a> and Ben Gregor\u2019s hotly anticipated The Magic Faraway Tree. These shoots account for a fraction of the titles produced in and around London in recent years.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe Magic Faraway Tree is shooting at Shinfield Studios, just outside London. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tParisa Taghizadeh\/Courtesy of Neal Street Productions and Elysian Film Group<\/p>\n

\n\tOf course, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland or indeed other parts of England are valuable, too, but of the approximately 7 million square feet of filming stage space that the U.K. benefits from, nearly a quarter of it (21 percent, to be precise) is in London.<\/p>\n

\n\tLucasfilm, the George Lucas-founded production company behind one of the most lucrative franchises in moviemaking history, has shot all nine of its Star Wars features at the company\u2019s Pinewood base. Solo, Rogue One and the Indiana Jones flicks also have laid the groundwork for a legacy built on billions of dollars\u2019 worth of success in the U.K., which is invested back into the business. And it aids local coffers as well: Left Bank Pictures\u2019 BBC drama This City Is Ours is estimated to have boosted Liverpool\u2019s economy by \u00a39 million ($12 million), according to the city council.<\/p>\n

\n\tA Lucasfilm source tells THR that this legacy element also promotes continuity of crews: Costume designers on recent Star Wars projects are the children of prop department pros on 1977\u2019s A New Hope: \u201cHarrison [Ford], Mark [Hamill] and Carrie [Fisher] were American and George was American, but all the crew were Brits.\u201d The same applies with James Bond \u2014 which will still be made in England following its Amazon takeover \u2014 and Harry Potter too: Hollywood produced but was flanked by U.K. teams.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDisney+\u2019s Andor <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDisney+\/Lucasfilm<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s not just, \u2018Let\u2019s go someplace [exotic] and get a tax break,\u2019 \u201d a source adds. \u201cBecause when you show up, there\u2019s really no workforce. You have to import all of that, and that\u2019s expensive. But you go to London and you have stages, personnel and everything you need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve had really big, iconic films filmed here, and what the U.K. has done is they\u2019ve built on that infrastructure\u201d by investing in new and old facilities, adds London-based immigration lawyer Chetal Patel, who has helped some of the industry\u2019s biggest stars move across the Atlantic. Amazon\u2019s acquisition of the historic Bray Studios (home of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Mummy and Alien, to name three) is set to get millions of dollars in investment over the next five years.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s also the benefit of geography. Location-scouting from London is a streamlined task when Wales is a short car journey away and the Scottish Highlands just a 60-minute flight. The rest of Europe \u2014 including the tax-light regions of Eastern Europe, Spain and Greece \u2014 are only hours from the urban landscape of London by plane.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNo matter where in the world [producers] might be looking, in my experience, production decisions consistently come down to two things \u2014 people and prices,\u201d says Mosallam. \u201cAs a world-class city, London is an easy ask for top-tier talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIndeed, there\u2019s no need to fly far from family when talent (and crew) can grab an early morning taxi to Pinewood. \u201cThe U.K. is an easier sell to stars,\u201d says L.A.-based talent attorney Abel Lezcano. \u201cAbove-the-line talent, meaning actors, head writers, directors \u2026 They don\u2019t necessarily want to go to South Africa or Botswana for eight weeks. Flying from New York to London is not much different than flying New York to Los Angeles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLondon\u2019s storied Pinewood Studios has played host to every Star Wars feature and spinoffs.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTony Watson\/Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Wicked\u2018s Ariana Grande released the deluxe version of her most recent album, Eternal Sunshine, one of the most talked-about tracks was a love letter to the north London area Hampstead. \u201cI left my heart at a pub in Hampstead,\u201d she sings. A favorite among celebrities like Taylor Swift and Harry Styles, the quaint, village-esque spot is a stone\u2019s throw from the city center and perfectly positioned for stars.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd Hampstead is one of a hundred \u2014 London\u2019s boroughs are extensive and diverse, with some of the world\u2019s best restaurants, green spaces, museums, sports arenas and theaters within reach. So when Jon M. Chu\u2019s Broadway adaptation filmed both parts of Wicked at Pinewood, its entire cast \u2014 Brits Cynthia Erivo and Jonathan Bailey included \u2014 were more than happy to nestle in the U.K. during the shoot. \u201cMaybe somebody gives you a great tax incentive to shoot in the desert,\u201d another insider adds. \u201cBut do you want to spend a year in the desert?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPatel concurs. She says that her clients have been flocking to the U.K. thanks to benefits like the country\u2019s free health care system and security advantages (read: restrictive gun laws). One client working in Britain through the Global Talent visa tells THR: \u201cThe political shift and cost of living, especially the cost of health care \u2014 which was virtually unaffordable as a freelancer \u2014 became a significant factor to the decision to extradite myself from the U.S. I felt that I was much more culturally tuned to the U.K. ethos.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut there\u2019s another incentive as well: sticking it to Trump. With diversity and inclusion programs getting shuttered seemingly everywhere, Britain has the potential to become something of a refuge for talent hoping to get away from Trumpian turmoil. \u201cWith the Trump administration, there is a crackdown on certain nationalities even coming into the U.S.,\u201d explains Patel. \u201cIf you\u2019re Indian or Pakistani, [it can be more difficult]. So a lot of people don\u2019t necessarily want to be in the U.S. \u2026 The U.K., to some extent, provides a safe haven for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThen there\u2019s the chaos and uncertainty surrounding travel and visas thanks to Trump\u2019s hard-line immigration policy. Patel advises her clients to capitalize on a visa scheme called the Global Talent visa \u2014 \u201cthe cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me\u201d of visa categories available in the U.K. \u2014 which allows talent to work and live in Britain for up to five years. Many of Patel\u2019s clients, she tells THR, have been making use of it in recent months. It isn\u2019t a sponsored route, but it allows the applicant to earn money however they like, whether as a freelancer or self-employed. All they need is a \u201csubstantial track record\u201d and an endorsement from a British-based member of the entertainment industry.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy plan was to move here, and with the current administration, that time is now,\u201d another creative on the Global Talent visa says. \u201cFor the past few years, I\u2019ve really enjoyed and related much more to the work coming out of the U.K. My favorite projects and people that I\u2019ve worked with have been from the U.K. \u2026 I find it increasingly difficult to create here in America because the atmosphere is not conducive to my sensibilities as an artist. The quality of life in the U.K. suits me much better not only as an artist, but as a human being.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tReaction to Trump is even being felt in the production of British content, which some say has the potential to fill a void left by the current play-it-safe-at-all-costs mentality in the American entertainment industry. As Hollywood in the Trump age becomes more risk-averse, insiders say the U.K. isn\u2019t afraid of embracing tough material, and boundary-pushing only reaffirms what execs already believe about Britain: It is the best country for content on the small screen right now, and examples abound, from Black Mirror to Baby Reindeer.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe are unmatched in the world for what we do in this space,\u201d BFI chair and Apple TV+ European creative director Jay Hunt said late last year. \u201cI mean literally unmatched. To sit at the Emmys [where Apple TV+ hit Slow Horses took home best writing for a drama series in 2024] or the Oscars a couple of years ago and just hear British accent after British accent walking up onstage \u2026 I just want to keep doing something that fuels that, because this is really precious.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMany believe that backlash to Trump\u2019s DEI crackdown could end up having a positive effect on minorities and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds seeking access to the industry in the more welcoming U.K. Patel offers Netflix\u2019s Adolescence<\/a> as an example of how British producers can fight back against Trump\u2019s attacks on diversity \u2014 and have real-world impact in the process.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c[Adolescence star Owen Cooper] and the child actors were purposefully chosen for those roles as they hadn\u2019t gone through that traditional [upper middle class] drama route. They wanted to create opportunities for social mobility,\u201d she says of the timely Brit drama. \u201cIt\u2019s something that we\u2019re fully embracing in the U.K.\u201d The impact of the show has been so profound that it has been discussed in Parliament and is now being screened in schools across the U.K. in an effort to combat knife violence and the toxic influence of the online \u201cmanosphere\u201d on young boys.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe Netflix drama Adolescence is the latest example of how dominant boundary-pushing British dramas have become on the small screen. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tSimilarly, ITV\u2019s Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office (2024) was a show for public broadcast that had the country in an uproar. The Peabody Award winner spotlighted how hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongly convicted of theft \u2014 the true cause was a faulty IT system \u2014 between 1999 and 2015. The series was so popular and the scandal it depicted so outrageous that it prompted the British government to exonerate the sub-postmasters and compensate them in thousands of pounds. The former Post Office boss Paula Vennells was publicly vilified and stripped of her CBE. Film and television can provoke political and societal change in the U.K., Patel says, which isn\u2019t always the case in other countries: \u201cWe can be provocative.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Hunt, Idris Elba\u2019s 2010 casting on Luther as the BBC One\u2019s first Black lead was a turning point for the industry. \u201cYou go into people\u2019s homes, and you change the way they think about the country that they live in,\u201d she said while discussing how British film and TV can \u201cchange the world.\u201d She adds, \u201cIt\u2019s profoundly important that we find a way, particularly in quite a divided society, that communities across the U.K. see themselves onscreen and see their stories onscreen, and we know it\u2019s utterly game-changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the full extent of Trump\u2019s impact remains to be seen, London\u2019s dominance on the global film and television stage outdates his return to politics\u2019 biggest job, and it shows no signs of abating. Studio facilities are booked solid for years, the various cost savings will no doubt become even more valuable as the trade wars impact the global economy, and London\u2019s streets will continue to crawl with Hollywood talent (even if their posh hotels aren\u2019t on fire).<\/p>\n

\n\tFor some, London will never truly replace Hollywood, but the city\u2019s production boom certainly has the rest of the world \u2014 and President Trump, it appears \u2014 a little jealous.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFrom my discussions that I\u2019ve had with colleagues and friends in the U.S.,\u201d Patel says, \u201cwe are definitely the new Hollywood. I\u2019ve got some contacts for the big streamers overseas, and what they\u2019ve said to me is London is the next big stage, and they want to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA version of this story appeared in the May 7 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rumor has it that when London\u2018s luxury hotel Chiltern Firehouse erupted in flames in February, most of its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[450,10726,748,393,4884,522,257,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-85797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-adolescence","9":"tag-andor","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-international","14":"tag-london","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114474685922350676","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}