Bringing the world to Wales

Broadcast

With a raft of dramas lined up, including the BBC’s His Dark Materials, Bad Wolf aims to make Wolf Studios Wales the centre of an international TV production hub. 

https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/drama/bringing-the-world-to-wales/5126621.article

It has housed Venice, upstate New York and Oxford’s Bodleian Library, and will soon become Svalbard and a whole new Oxford-set universe.

Bad Wolf Productions is world building at Wolf Studios Wales (Stiwdio Blaidd Cymru) and wants to sweep the local creative industries along with it.

“When we were working in the US, it was a revelation to us just how much filming was done in studios, how familiar the crews were with the spaces, and how the studio culture brought together a whole community,” explains Jane Tranter, co-founder with Julie Gardner of the indie backed by HBO and Sky.

“We felt there was no reason why that couldn’t be replicated in Wales, as long as we gave people a centre to work from.”

The pair, who famously brought Doctor Who and Torchwood to Cardiff while at the helm of BBC Drama, launched the indie in 2015 after heading up BBC Worldwide Productions in LA.

They made the Emmy-winning crime drama The Night Of for HBO in the US, then established a production base in Cardiff (with an office in LA) for a slate of commissions led by A Discovery Of Witches (pictured above) for Sky and His Dark Materials for the BBC and New Line Cinema.

“When we returned from LA, there was a strategic and emotional drive to do those pieces in Wales,” says Gardner. “We have had the best experience of crew and cast and location in Wales and we’re very committed to having a long-term future there.”

Booking into studios such as Pinewood Wales or other existing UK sound stages was impossible as no suitable space was available. “Demand for production is far outstripping availability,” says Gardner.

“The type of set construction needed for high-end drama on sound stages is often expensive, which is why UK drama has historically shot on location or used warehouses.”

The decision to seek a long-term solution was born of the pair’s experience shooting in warehouses, including refurbishing a former car plant in Swansea for three series of Starz’s Da Vinci’s Demons.

“There are numerous industrial spaces, but the reality on the ground is that there’s a limited choice of size and location,” says Gardner.

“You end up having to go with what you find, which often means a leaky or noisy roof. You use your production spend to make them fit for purpose, but for each production, you have to start again from scratch. We wanted something more sustainable.”

Dedicated studio space, she adds, “provides control, flexibility and weather cover, and gives the production team and cast a healthy working environment”.

In addition, she says: “We could see from the titles we had coming down the track that we’d need extensive set-builds and high ceilings to accommodate green screens and access for trucks. His Dark Materials and A Discovery Of Witches are complicated pieces.”

Tranter says they also wanted a space that would encourage local businesses to grow. “The aim is to provide the production community with work 52 weeks a year, rather than vacating the site and leaving just tumbleweed and crisp packets.”

The Welsh government bought into Bad Wolf ’s vision, acquiring the 253,500 sq ft site of a former TV screen factory at Trident Park on the outskirts of Cardiff and supporting the company with a £4m loan to retrofit six soundproofed stages that range from 14,000 sq ft to 51,000 sq ft, one of which has a ceiling height of 17.5 metres – two metres higher than Pinewood’s Bond stages.

“What taking that loan has given us is freedom,” says Tranter. “We felt that it was really important for us not to be attached to any distributor or boxed into a corner with a broadcaster, so we would be free to set up each project we do in a discrete, boutique way.”

The Welsh government expects at least a £50m return on the loan (over an unspecified period), based on regional project spend across production and post-production, as well as the wider sector, from graphic designers to make-up artists, hotels and catering firms.

Now, with the £25m-budget Witches complete and with His Dark Materials ready to roll once the headline cast is finalised, Bad Wolf says it’s well on the way to delivering £75m-£100m back to the local economy.

All exteriors on His Dark Materials will be shot on location in Wales, bar some establishing plates of scenes set in the Arctic. It is planned as a five-series, 40-episode juggernaut, with series one encompassing Northern Lights, the first of Philip Pullman’s trilogy.

Bad Wolf has helped to establish Screen Alliance Wales, a not-for-profit organisation based at the studio, to support the development of crew and training.

When capacity is available, other productions will be invited in. “There is already a core skilled workforce based here around Doctor Who and Casualty,” says Tranter. “The aim is to grow the workforce with a pipeline of work all year round – an opportunity almost unheard-of in the UK.”

An adaptation of Bernard Cornwell’s Warlord Chronicles remains “deep in development”, with costume drama Georgiana: Duchess Of Devonshire, co-produced with Baby Cow for ITV, seemingly more advanced.

It is also working on banking drama Industry for HBO and has been linked to a long-mooted update of I, Claudius. Tranter was first linked to an HBO version of Robert Graves’ book back in 2011 and, like Georgiana, it is being written by former BBC2 controller Janice Hadlow.

“Julie and I set up Bad Wolf to fulfil our life-long passion to make drama,” says Tranter. “We are not interested in being in any form of business other than that – especially property.”

Gardner adds: “Having the security of such a large facility allows everyone to concentrate on doing what matters, whether that’s building new worlds or set extensions, working on the text, finessing performances or planning the CGI for His Dark Materials’ daemons. We are able to control the environment.”

Space Studios Manchester Lands Curfew

Manchester’s Space Studios has landed Tiger Aspect and Moonage Pictures’ Curfew, the largest drama production to book into the facility to date.

The eight-part Sky Original street-racing series, which stars Sean Bean and Adrian Lester, will take up three stages.

Last month, the studio opened its sixth stage – its largest, at 30,000 sq ft – which will host Big Talk’s latest series of Cold Feet until June.

 “We are seeing a lot of interest from Netflix and Amazon about using the space,” says director of screens and facilities Colin Johnson. “The additional size of stage six allows productions the capacity to build much larger sets without having to take up two stages.”

Manchester City Council, which owns the site, is drawing up plans to release more land for further expansion.

“We want to see how stage six operates before deciding what we do with the remainder of the land,” says Johnson. “The council took the risk of building studio space here some years ago and it’s clear there’s still a strong business case and demand.”

The original business plan included developing the local supply chain. Space Studios has 60,000 sq ft of space for production offices and ancillary businesses, all of which has been sold, it says.