# Does Britain have a Hollywood equivalent? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 27, 2005, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-britain-have-a-hollywood-equivalent/301337 "2005-04-27T08:49:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-britain-have-a-hollywood-equivalent/301337/1 "2005-04-27T08:49:02Z")
Tittle says it all, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-britain-have-a-hollywood-equivalent/301337/2 "2005-04-27T08:58:40Z")
Do you mean large movie studios? There’s [Pinewood](http://www.pinewoodshepperton.com/), or do you mean an expensive residential area where lots of famous people live? ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-britain-have-a-hollywood-equivalent/301337/3 "2005-04-27T09:49:47Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Do you mean large movie studios? There’s [Pinewood](http://www.pinewoodshepperton.com/), or do you mean an expensive residential area where lots of famous people live? Eh, didn’t really think about it like that. But now that you mention it, both I guess. ---
**Author:** ![mittu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-britain-have-a-hollywood-equivalent/301337/4 "2005-04-27T09:50:13Z")
If you mean a big white sign to remind people where they live (or sell real estate) i’m sure I sa something similar from the window of a train near either Dewsbury or Shrewsbury, no cite as it could have all been a dream 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![filmyak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@filmyak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmyak)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-britain-have-a-hollywood-equivalent/301337/5 "2005-04-27T10:02:54Z")
The reason the major film studios are in Los Angeles are because, at the start of the movie industry, most of the film centers were on the US’s east coast. The film pioneers moved west for two reasons. 1) To get away from mob control. 2) The weather. Much was shot with natural light, and Los Angeles was a lot sunnier than New York for most of the year. So the industry grew up here in Los Angeles, and now is a major industry. So while Britain has Pinewood studios and a strong film base, I doubt it’s anywhere near the size of LA’s. But note that there are very few actual studios in Hollywood proper (a few, but not many). Most of the big ones are over the hill in the valley. Part of Los Angeles, but not Hollywood. ---
**Author:** ![mittu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-britain-have-a-hollywood-equivalent/301337/6 "2005-04-27T10:11:37Z")
I think Eddie Izzard sums up the two film-making industries quite well 🙂 > [@](#): > > But we’ve got known in Britain for making the smaller films, you know. Recently, we’ve been pulling out of that into the more “Trainspotting” area, but the smaller films, they’re kind of “a room with a view with a staircase and a pond”-type movies. Films with very fine acting, but the drama is rather sort of subsued and - subsumed or - a word like that. Sub- something or another. You know, just folded in and everything’s people opening doors. > > “Oh, I’m - oh, what? Well, I’ve - oh.” > > “What is it, Sebastian? I’m arranging matches.” > > “Well, I - I thought you - … I’d better go.” > > “Yes, I think you’d better had.” ( sings morose melody ) > > And you can’t eat popcorn to that! You’re going ( mimes trying to eat popcorn but getting frustrated and sighs ). > > Whereas if the film did any little bit of business in America, if the film did some decent bit of business, then Hollywood would take it, and they’d remake it, and they’d up the budget by 50 million and it’d be called, “The Room With A View of Hell!” “Staircase of Satan!” “Pond of Death.” ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-britain-have-a-hollywood-equivalent/301337/7 "2005-04-27T13:37:07Z")
Here is a link to some of the more famous British film studios, including Ealing, Shepperton, Pinewood and Elstree. The studios tend to be in suburbs of London, far enough away from the city to be self-contained, but close enough for commuting. The British film industry has had some false starts—mostly, because every time they really get up and running, a World War breaks out. They had a terrible time competing with Hollywood (and lost a lot of their talent to Hollywood), so they never really had a “Golden Age,” but rather a scattering of brilliant films, stars and directors over the decades. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-britain-have-a-hollywood-equivalent/301337/8 "2005-04-27T13:38:29Z")
Oops, [here](http://www.answers.com/topic/list-of-british-film-studios) is that link. ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-britain-have-a-hollywood-equivalent/301337/9 "2005-04-27T13:46:54Z")
The famous old [Ealing Studios](http://www.ealingstudios.co.uk/home_flash.html) are undergoing something of a revival at the moment (although “Valiant” was hardly in the best tradition). It’s located within a fairly residential area and you could easily miss it. There’s a very nice pub almost opposite, the Red Lion, whose walls are adorned with photos of the good old days. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-britain-have-a-hollywood-equivalent/301337/10 "2005-04-27T16:04:31Z")
That list left out Lion’s Gate. The European (and most other international; Bollywood is arguably the sole exception) film industries will never compare in size or global box-office sway to Hollywood, but that’s in large part due to the magnetic attraction Hollywood has had on so many of the artists in these foreign industries. Much of Hollywood’s creativity and vitality has derived from the constant influx of these foreign talents. Come to think of it, teasing out which people came from which country or filmmaking tradition could make for an interesting thread… ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-britain-have-a-hollywood-equivalent/301337/11 "2005-04-27T17:20:05Z")
> [@filmyak](#): > > The reason the major film studios are in Los Angeles are because, at the start of the movie industry, most of the film centers were on the US’s east coast. The film pioneers moved west for two reasons. 1) To get away from mob control. 2) The weather. Much was shot with natural light, and Los Angeles was a lot sunnier than New York for most of the year. And _also_ because Edison controlled the patents at that time, & tried to shut down/jail people who horned in on him. So, they set up a hop, skip & a jump from the Mexican border, just for a possible quick getaway. Or, so I was told in my Film Appreciation class. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2005, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-britain-have-a-hollywood-equivalent/301337/12 "2005-04-27T23:39:23Z")
Since it’s, alas, topical this week due to [John Mills’s funeral](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/entertainment/film/4487579.stm), it’s worth singling out Denham in Buckinghamshire, which was close to both Korda’s [Denham Studios](http://www.amps.net/newsletters/issue17/17_korda.htm) and Pinewood (both also listed in **Eve** ’s link). The village itself is particularly pretty in the classic English manner and there was a time when it was known as a favoured place for British film stars to live, with Mills being one example. However, it’s precisely because there’s no UK location that’s got quite the same glamorous ring as Hollywood that Matthew Sweet’s new history of British cinema can be archly titled [_Shepperton Babylon_](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0571212972/qid=1114644779/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_11_1/026-9445416-0350848). ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-britain-have-a-hollywood-equivalent/301337/13 "2005-04-28T04:44:50Z")
> [@The Scrivener](#): > > That list left out Lion’s Gate. [Lion’s Gate Studios](http://www.lionsgatestudios.com/index_flash.html) are **Canadian** , not British. They’re in Vancouver, and are presumably named after the [Lion’s Gate Bridge](http://www.b-t.com/projects/liongate.htm) connecting Vancouver and North Vancouver across the First Narrows.