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This is a article from the Manchester Evening News tonight.
Big plans for little Hul-lywood
PLANS to turn an area of Salford into the north west's very own version of Hollywood are stepping ever closer, i hear.
Web Film Studios in Little Hulton, already the largest independent film studios outside of London, is set for a rapid expansion in the coming months with a huge new stage to be built for more film, TV and commercial work.
Meanwhile, crunch talks will be taking place this week with national regeneration agency English Partnerships on plans for an entire film village to be built adjacent to the existing studios, at a 15-acre site known as Ashton Fields.
That would really send Little Hulton's "Sal-lywood" aspirations into the stratosphere.
I caught up with studio owners Ken Sykes and Bob Horsefield, who excitedly told me of their plans.
Their vast new studio will start being built next month, buoyed by a £100,000 Department of trade and Industry grant, and the new stage has already been booked for filming BBC comedy drama Full Forse, a Red Dwarf-style show, in the autumn.
Ken and Bob tell me that they simply can't build new facilities fast enough for the amount of work coming into the north west film and TV industry at the moment.
As recently as two years ago the lighting and production duo had to travel to London for 60 per cent of their work-but now say it has gone the opposite way.
"Everything is changing with more and more film work coming up to the north and all the signs are that it's going to get even busier," Bob told me.
"We hope the new stage will attract the big feature films to Little Hulton, and if the film village enentually gets the go ahead, with possibly eight new stages, then the sky really is the limit."
For the short term, Bob has already set his sights on one particular coup for the studios.
"Our aim is to get the new series of Doctor Who filmed here," he says.
"It is written by Manchester's Russell T Davies after all."
Written by Carmel Thomason.
Big plans for little Hul-lywood
PLANS to turn an area of Salford into the north west's very own version of Hollywood are stepping ever closer, i hear.
Web Film Studios in Little Hulton, already the largest independent film studios outside of London, is set for a rapid expansion in the coming months with a huge new stage to be built for more film, TV and commercial work.
Meanwhile, crunch talks will be taking place this week with national regeneration agency English Partnerships on plans for an entire film village to be built adjacent to the existing studios, at a 15-acre site known as Ashton Fields.
That would really send Little Hulton's "Sal-lywood" aspirations into the stratosphere.
I caught up with studio owners Ken Sykes and Bob Horsefield, who excitedly told me of their plans.
Their vast new studio will start being built next month, buoyed by a £100,000 Department of trade and Industry grant, and the new stage has already been booked for filming BBC comedy drama Full Forse, a Red Dwarf-style show, in the autumn.
Ken and Bob tell me that they simply can't build new facilities fast enough for the amount of work coming into the north west film and TV industry at the moment.
As recently as two years ago the lighting and production duo had to travel to London for 60 per cent of their work-but now say it has gone the opposite way.
"Everything is changing with more and more film work coming up to the north and all the signs are that it's going to get even busier," Bob told me.
"We hope the new stage will attract the big feature films to Little Hulton, and if the film village enentually gets the go ahead, with possibly eight new stages, then the sky really is the limit."
For the short term, Bob has already set his sights on one particular coup for the studios.
"Our aim is to get the new series of Doctor Who filmed here," he says.
"It is written by Manchester's Russell T Davies after all."
Written by Carmel Thomason.
