Peaky Blinders creator, Steven Knight is drawing up plans for a studio compound at the NEC to entice leading producers to the area, however the plans are still at the early stages.<\/p>\n
The Brummie writer is working alongside Birmingham City Council and other developers on the arrangement, saying that \u201cthere is no film too big for the city\u201d.<\/p>\n
He wishes to see the scheme breathe new life into the regions declining broadcasting sector, bringing in special effects, post-production and animation companies, as well as a new tourist attraction for film enthusiasts.<\/p>\n
Mr Knight said: \u201cIt will be a big deal if and when it happens \u2013 and I think it will happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am very bullish about this. The industry needs a big film studio outside London because everything is backed up and the big productions need space.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur plans, along with the council and others who have to remain unnamed, are to set up six purpose-built studios at the NEC which would be both for film and television, but mostly for film. It is really aimed at larger productions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Knight has held meetings with production titan, Paramount about a studio called \u201cMercian\u201d to be developed in Birmingham.<\/p>\n
His ambitious plans may well put the region back on the broadcasting map, in around two and a half years, as per the Brummie writer and director\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to look at the whole piece of land and make it a real destination both for people who make films and people who want to be around film-making,\u201d he revealed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, it would have a halo effect on the wider area and you\u2019d start to have the more high-tech side \u2013 post-production, animation, all of those things.<\/p>\n
\u201cA film studio can generate all those things, along with retail and restaurants which would hopefully then be attracted to the area. You would have a media centre which could attract in anyone \u2013 the Royal Shakespeare Company maybe, or the BBC.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think these are things that can be made to happen. There seems to be a strong will for it to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
A romantic thriller, written by Mr Knight, is currently being filmed in the South East. He has said that the movie, featuring Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard, could have been transported to Birmingham if he had his way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I had anything to do with it, it would have, because I would have urged the producers to consider it. Birmingham is ideal because it is so accessible to London.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of the time and costs, this is a good place to be, but also there is the city itself. Talent can stay in Birmingham \u2013 there are plenty of great places to live and things to do here.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a vibrant living city and once people get used to the idea of something like this in Birmingham, it will really go places.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor big film production, the studios need to be bigger and higher, which this would be. It would be the first purpose-built studio built for a very long time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Peaky Blinders creator, Steven Knight is drawing up plans for a studio compound at the NEC to entice leading producers to the area, however the plans are still at the early stages. The Brummie writer is working alongside Birmingham City Council and other developers on the arrangement, saying that \u201cthere is no film too big […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":14942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,3,112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}