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BBC News
03-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Sunderland Crown Works film studios plan backed by government
The government is "determined" to support the development of a film studio after a major investor pulled out, a senior Labour minister has secretary Lisa Nandy told MPs her department was working alongside local leaders as they searched for new funding for the Crown Works Studios project in emerged on Monday that investment firm Cain International, which led the plans in a joint venture with Fulwell Entertainment, had withdrawn from the £450m vision to build a production complex on the banks of the River Wear in City Council and the North East Combined Authority (Neca) say they "remain confident" of securing investment. Sunderland Central MP Lewis Atkinson asked Nandy on Thursday how the government's new creative industries strategy, which specifically highlights the "game-changing plans for film production" in the city, would ensure the development was in the House of Commons, she replied that Crown Works would bring "great jobs and growth to the North East of England and help our amazing film industry thrive".Nandy said: "Anyone who has ever visited Sunderland will know why the film industry is based there and why it is thriving there, and we are determined to support that."We are working with Sunderland City Council and the North East Mayoral Combined Authority. They are really confident that a private investor will be secured to support Crown Works film studios."Although it has not directly invested in the scheme, the government has provided £25m to Neca as part of a devolution deal for early development of the authorities, meanwhile, have committed to a total public investment of up to £ City Council leader Michael Mordey said on Monday he expected to have new funding in place by the time remediation works were finished later this year, ready to begin the first phase of planning permission has already been granted for initial construction that would include four sound stages, though the wider vision was for asked about Crown Works in April, Ms Nandy told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the government was "working very closely to make sure that moves at pace and that, [with] the investment we have put in, people start to see results very quickly".Fulwell Entertainment, which made the Sunderland 'Til I Die Netflix series, said it remained "committed to working with the council to find appropriate private funding". Follow BBC Sunderland on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
BBC News
01-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Sunderland Crown Works Studios funding setback 'not end of project '
Building work will "continue as normal" on a multimillion-pound film and TV studio despite a key investor backing out, a mayor has estate firm Cain International said it had withdrawn from the Crown Works Studios project in Sunderland but declined to go into more North East Mayor Kim McGuinness said: "Work is already under way and we're committed to delivering Crown Works, but we know that we can find new investors." Work on the site began earlier this year, with the government providing £25m through devolution funding, and Sunderland City Council and the North East Combined Authority (NECA) committing to about £120m. The development, on the former shipyard site in Pallion, next to the Northern Spire Bridge, is expected to create thousands of jobs. Funding for the rest of the scheme was expected to come from a joint venture between Fulwell Entertainment and Cain, which had intended on building 19 sound stages at the riverside site. Alison Gwynn, head of North East Screen, said: "We know we have support from central and regional government, one investor may be out but this is a chance to find the right investor."The organisation said there had been a 131% increase in the number of productions filmed in the region over the past three years and it was "confident" the site would be up and running by 2027. "This isn't all doom and gloom, the groundworks are happening right now, construction is due to start in January - this is going to happen, we are really confident," Ms Gwynn said. Phase one of the project would see four sound stages built on the site, with an aim of getting more built in further phases if the studio "proved" to be commercially viable. 'Grit and determination' Fulwell Entertainment, which is behind the Netflix football documentary Sunderland 'Til I Die, said it "remains committed to working with the council to find appropriate private funding, complementing the combined North East authority and wider government funding needed to make these world-class production studios a reality".Labour-led Sunderland City Council said the proposals were "being presented to the investment market, with the aim to put in place a final funder and developer later this year".Rob Lawson, chair of Sunderland Business Partnership, a collective of the region's businesses and organisations, said it was important to support the efforts of the council as it searched for new investment."Sunderland is a city of grit and determination – a place that digs in and delivers through adversity," he added. Follow BBC Sunderland on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
BBC News
30-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Sunderland's Crown Works Studios' backer pulls out of film hub
New investment is being sought to finance a major film studio after one of its backers pulled £450m Crown Works Studios project in Sunderland is being designed as a major hub for the TV and film industry and it is hoped it will allow major projects to be created in the north-east of International confirmed it had withdrawn from the project but declined to give a reason for the remaining backer, Fulwell Entertainment, said it remained committed to working with Sunderland City Council to find "appropriate private funding" to allow the development to continue. Crown Works Studios is set to be built on the banks of the River Wear and it is hoped it will create thousands of jobs in the government has already provided £25m towards the project, while the council and the North East mayoral authority have committed to invest about £120m, according to the Local Democracy Reporting much of the funding was expected to come from a joint venture between Fulwell and Cain, which had intended on building 19 sound stages at the riverside site. A spokesperson for Fulwell Entertainment said: "Fulwell Entertainment remains committed to working with the council to find appropriate private funding, complementing the combined NE authority and wider government funding needed to make these world-class production studios a reality." Labour-led Sunderland City Council said the proposals were "being presented to the investment market, with the aim to put in place a final funder and developer later this year".Council leader Michael Mordey said: "These studios represent a game-changing opportunity for the city and we cannot wait to see them progress. "There's an absolute commitment to secure the best possible delivery partner to move this forward and we expect that we will have funding confirmed and be ready to progress the first phase of the studios by the time remediation works complete later this year."Labour's North East Mayor Kim McGuinness said she remained confident Crown Works Studios would be "a flagship site in a thriving industry for years to come." The council's Liberal Democrat opposition leader, Paul Edgeworth, said he hoped the studios would not turn out to be an "empty promise"."Labour have every lever at their disposal to make sure this project is a success," he said. "Sunderland council, the regional mayor and the government must now make it their top priority to make sure this development gets off the ground." Follow BBC Sunderland on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
ITV News
30-06-2025
- Business
- ITV News
Search for Crown Works Studios investment as private backer pulls out of £450m Sunderland film hub
New investment is being sought for a flagship film studio plan in the North East – after its initial backers pulled out. It has been hoped that the Crown Works Studios in Sunderland would create thousands of jobs and bring blockbuster film and TV production to the region. But Sunderland City Council and the North East Combined Authority are now looking for fresh investment to ensure the studios can be built on the banks of the River Wear, after financiers Cain International withdrew. Local leaders say they 'remain confident' in the scheme's future and that they expect to have new funding in place before the end of this year, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reports. The vision for the vast £450m complex was originally led by FulwellCain, a joint venture between global entertainment company Fulwell 73 and Cain International, who had hoped to build 19 sound stages at the riverside site. Sunderland City Council said on Monday (30 June) that Fulwell Entertainment 'remains a committed champion of the scheme', but that the proposals were now 'being presented to the investment market, with the aim to put in place a final funder and developer later this year'. Council leader Michael Mordey said: 'These studios represent a game-changing opportunity for the city and we cannot wait to see them progress. "There's an absolute commitment to secure the best possible delivery partner to move this forward and we expect that we will have funding confirmed and be ready to progress the first phase of the studios by the time remediation works complete later this year.' Preparatory works on land next to the Northern Spire Bridge are already under way, paid for through public money, but building work on the studios has yet to begin. Planning permission for the development was secured last year, but detailed approval has only been granted for a first phase of building that would include four sound stages, production offices, workshop buildings, and a multi-storey car park. The Government has provided an initial £25m cash injection, via the devolution deal which established the North East mayor, while Sunderland City Council and the North East mayoral authority have committed to ultimately invest up to £120m. A specialist agent is being appointed by the council to engage with investors, which the authority said would still include the likes of Fulwell Entertainment – who were behind the Sunderland 'Til I Die Netflix series. North East mayor Kim McGuinness added: 'We're supporting Sunderland City Council in the job of preparing the site, which can eventually be the largest film and TV production complex in the UK outside of London and the South East. 'In the process we'll create thousands of new jobs for local people and end the days where people have to leave the North East to pursue a career in creative industries. "This is why the project has to date secured a public sector funding package worth £120m including £25m which we have put in to begin preparation of the site at Pallion on Sunderland Riverside. We remain confident that this will be a flagship site in a thriving industry for years to come.' Former Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and ex-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visited Wearside in March 2024, when Mr Hunt described the Crown Works as 'totally and utterly transformational' for the city and the wider region. Current chancellor Rachel Reeves later confirmed the £25m funding in her Budget last October, while Labour culture secretary Lisa Nandy told the Local Democracy Reporting Service this year that the Government was 'working very closely to make sure that moves at pace and that, [with] the investment we have put in, people start to see results very quickly'. The Crown Works was named just last week by the Government this week as one of the key areas of the North East's economic growth, as Labour announced its new industrial strategy for the nation. "The Government rejected plans to build one of the UK's biggest film and TV production studios near Maidenhead, in Berkshire, last month and said that there was 'likely to be sufficient capacity within existing studio space' for the industry 'for the immediate future'. North East Screen chief executive Alison Gwynn said: 'The region is 100% committed to studio development as part of their support for the wider creative industry. "Production in the North East is up 131% in our region in the last three years and we recently saw the most eagerly awaited blockbuster 28 Years Later, which was shot almost entirely in our region, showcase not only some outstanding locations, but also some epic scenes created here in our alternative studio space. 'We are now excited to be looking for the right investor for the next stage of our region's growth. The North East has never been in a better position to make the most of these exciting opportunities.'
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Grammys EP Ben Winston on the risks of producing live TV: ‘I always never know quite why we do it'
If you've enjoyed a live TV music special in recent years, chances are Ben Winston produced it. Since signing off The Late Late Show with James Corden in 2023, which he executive produced, he's more than had his hands full with his company Fulwell Entertainment, bringing a slew of music specials to the screen — with Dua Lipa, Elton John, and Brandi Carlile this year alone — along with Carpool Karaoke Christmas, Ellen DeGeneres: For Your Approval, The Kardashians, to name a few. More from GoldDerby 'Ballerina' stumbles at the box office while 'Lilo & Stitch' surfs to another $32.5M Brian Tyree Henry on how 'Dope Thief' let him 'reclaim' his name: 'I was just Paper Boi to people,' and now 'I became Brian again' Emmy experts debate Comedy Series race: 'Hacks' will compete against 'a bunch of new kids on the block' He also took on his own Mission: Impossible when he orchestrated Tom Cruise's jump off the stadium roof as part of the Olympic torch handoff from Paris to L.A. as part of the closing ceremony. And then there was this year's Grammy Awards — held in the wake of the devastating fires that ravaged Los Angeles. Here, Winston opens up to Gold Derby about his life as a producer: Yes, he still gets nervous before going live; no, he doesn't want to tackle the Oscars — and as for the 2028 Olympics, he's waiting for the phone to ring. Gold Derby: Do you miss the late-night days? Ben Winston: Oh, I miss it so much. But it's given us the opportunity to do other things, and we never wanted to overstay our welcome. We never wanted to be irrelevant. We always wanted to be in the zeitgeist. So I think that we left the stage at the right time, as much as I miss it. What does it take for content to break through these days? I think really compelling storytelling is always the way. Whether we're making an episode of The Kardashians or whether we're launching the LA28 games, I think it's about how do you make something that surprises and delights and gets people talking. I think in this environment where there is so much out there that it's hard to find your audience, I think if we can do something, whether that be Benson Boone and Doechii at the Grammys or whether it be Tom Cruise jumping off a plane or jumping off the roof at the Paris Stadium or whether it be Kim and Kourtney going to India for an episode of The Kardashians, if we can create real big moments of content that get people talking and discussing and sharing, then I think we're winning. But it's harder and harder. So when a project lands on your desk like the Grammys or the Olympics, how do you approach it? I think, 'What's the idea? What do I want to say?' The biggest one I would say of this last year would have been the LA28 special. Because usually the handover is kind of a nothing moment in a closing ceremony. I remember in London, I was at the closing ceremony. I think the next Olympics was Brazil. It was just some Brazilian dancers and a musician. So when I sat down with Casey Wasserman and the LA28 team, literally two years before we did it, it was like, what can we do for ten minutes in the closing ceremony that really grabs attention and makes a statement about L.A.? I was really keen to do something big that embraced the Hollywood of L.A., that embraced music because I think music is a huge part of the culture here. I wanted to show off the city because, yes, we don't have the Eiffel Tower and the Seine and the Notre Dame, but we do have beautiful beaches. We have really iconic symbols, whether it be the Griffith Park Observatory or the Hollywood Sign. But more than that, what I had to think about with L.A. was the theme. What is the Olympics? The Olympics is a thing that people from all over the world go to, and they try and achieve their dreams there. And Los Angeles is a city where people from all over the world come to, and they try and achieve their dreams here. Linking all of those things together suddenly got me thinking. I'd worked with Tom Cruise quite a bit over The Late Late Show days. We've done lots of sketches with James [Corden], whether it would him being Pumbaa and Timon in Lion King or jumping out of a plane or flying those Top Gun planes with James, and I've gotten to know Tom well. And I had this idea that maybe he jumps off the roof, shocks everybody, grabs the flag, and then takes that flag out of the stadium and drives from Paris to his airplane, jumps out of the airplane, lands in Hollywood and takes over the sign. And then we showcase some real sporting icons of L.A. who then take that flag and land at the beach, and then we just do a huge beach concert. I love how you start with a really small idea. Gotta think big! It was difficult to do. But it was such a fun, bold, ambitious idea. And everyone was in. So in the end, it became a one-hour special that encompassed all of those ideas that was a real celebration of L.A. What was beautiful about it for L.A. and for me is that the next day of the closing ceremony, the image that was around the globe was Dre and Snoop in front of the LA28 sign and Tom jumping off the roof. So we'd achieved our goal of announcing and launching LA28 in a really great way. So going back to the other question, how do you get attention? That is a great example where I think unscripted television really gripped the world and made an impact. You had to have been worried about pulling all of that off. What was your biggest concern? There were so many. The fact that the biggest movie star in the world is standing on a roof and about to jump off it, that is always a concern. We lost our beach with about four weeks to go, for various reasons. And then it's just all those elements coming together. I was really excited when NBC loved the idea so much that they gave us a special for it, though that meant that what was a 16 minute idea that was live could then become like an hour's special with more music and more Tom could breathe a little bit more in prime time. But that was a very nerve wracking on the day because although it was pre-taped it was live in the ceremony. That was the most nervous I think I've ever been, of anything I've done. You still get nervous? Live television is always nerve-wracking. I always never quite know why we do it. As it gets towards 5 p.m. on Grammy Sunday, I have this sort of sick feeling in my stomach where I'm always like, why on earth did I agree to do this again? We only have six weeks to make that show because the nominations come out around Thanksgiving. Nobody will do anything before they're nominated. You can't even pick up the phone to ask them. And this year with the fires, most of our team were evacuated. Some of our team lost their homes. And suddenly, we were making a show for Feb. 2 with all of that going on as well. The way I always think about it is you're climbing this mountain, you get to the top of that mountain at 5 on Grammy Sunday, and you jump off. And you just hope the parachute opens and you have a really nice flight. But you also know that it's live television. Anything could happen, and you could smack your head on the way down. Luckily, I think this year was probably the show I'm most proud of. Why is that? Because I think that the fact that we were making it around the time of the fires, the fact that there were murmurs of people saying you shouldn't be doing the Grammys a month after the fires have broken out, the fact that I had a real passion to do it and was really feeling that we could actually do something really beautiful for the city of L.A. I worked out that 6,000 people earn a living in some way from the Grammys happening. Now that doesn't mean I employ 6,000 people. That means florists or local car companies or staging companies or removal vans or venue security — 6,000 people earn a living from the Grammys, and they live in Los Angeles. And the worst thing you could possibly say to 6,000 people is because of our concern for you right now, we're not going to employ you at the Grammys. I just thought it was such a ridiculous mentality. I was very passionate as an LA guy that we wanted the show to happen, but I also felt like we could do good. We raised nearly $30 million that night. What changes did you make to the show to address the fires? Every ad break, we gave a commercial to a local business. It was a local florist, and we had Doja Cat doing a commercial for them. Or we had Charlie Puth at the local karate den that got burned down or Avril Lavigne at the skate park in the Palisades. And I just thought it was a really lovely idea of showcasing local businesses who had lost so much in the fires and partnering them with a Grammys artist. And then there was also the question of who starts the show. I was having a conversation with Brandi Carlisle, and we were talking about the song 'I Love L.A.' And interestingly, I was playing that in my car as I was driving from my hotel into the office, because I was evacuated. I thought, well, actually, that's a really beautiful way of starting the show, but then who plays it? And then Brandi said to me, do you know the band Dawes? They lost their homes and their studio in the fires. Allowing them to open the Grammys with a supergroup of artists, John Legend and Brittany Howard and all these incredible artists, Sheryl Crow, Brad Paisley — that could be an amazing way to open the show. Everything from the way we reacted to the fires all the way to featuring the best new artists for the time in the history of the Grammys. We didn't stop the music. It just went one after the other after the other after the other. And I love the way we did that in that Trevor went in the audience. He walked through and he introduced each one of them, and you just thought he was going to throw to the package. And he says, oh, let's take a look at the music from these best new artists. And then Benson Boone gets out his microphone and the suit rips off, and that started that was the trigger, and then all the other artists run to their corners, Shaboozey and Doechii and Raye, bringing down the house. And so that was a really lovely moment that was technically incredibly hard. Hamish Hamilton did an amazing job directing that, but staging it where the music never stopped. I love the idea of music never stopping. You also had the added pressure as the first award show back to make it OK for there to be award shows again. Whether it be the commercials for the local businesses, whether it be the fire department presenting the Grammy award for album of the year to Beyoncé, whether it be Dawes opening, which I thought was really powerful. We love this show, and we love music, and we love television. Yes, the fires were brutal for all of us, but they actually made us they made us sharpen our lens. They made us go, OK. How do we make this OK, and how do we pay tribute this city, and how do we make a love letter to this city? And in a way, I think it was an advantage going first because everyone could follow our lead. You've done so many kinds of live TV. What's on your wish list? What do you still want to do? We've been really lucky. We've done a few really wonderful music specials. I love working with artists. I love the challenge of live television. There's a big thing happening in three years in this city, so hopefully, I'll be a little bit involved in that. I'm not after doing more award shows. I really like the one that I make. I love the Grammys. I'm proud of the Grammys. It's become part of me. I don't have a burning desire to suddenly start running other award shows. So no Oscars for you? Nope. Definitely not. I think Raj [Kapoor] does a great job on that, and that's one for him, not me. We're developing a reality show right now in Calabasas, to partner with our Kardashian show, and I'm really enjoying the casting process of that. I'm looking at doing a kids' show with a streaming platform right now, which I've never done before, but it could be quite impactful. As a dad of a 5-year-old and an 8-year-old, if you'd asked me 10 years ago about a kids' show, I'd be like, what are you on about? (Laughs.) I think about what could I be doing at the World Cup next year? I love working with Trevor Noah — what is the next form of variety show that we could do together? I'm really excited about the opportunities that we have over here at Fulwell, and just really want to make things that I'm proud of and I love and I'm passionate about. So what do you have up your sleeve for the 2028 Olympics in LA? I don't know right now, because nothing's been announced. But if I had the opportunity of being involved in LA28, I would love that. I think it's going to be a phenomenal Olympics, and I'd be honored to be involved. I hope they call me! Best of GoldDerby Marlon Wayans on laughing through tragedy in 'Good Grief' and why social media has made comedy 'toxic' Minha Kim 'confronted all new emotions that I had never anticipated' in Season 2 of 'Pachinko' 'Étoile': Exclusive 4-part conversation with creators, star Luke Kirby, cinematographer, and choreographer Click here to read the full article.
