Shepperton Studios is a film and television studio located in the rural Surrey countryside, just outside London, UK. Established in 1932, it has served as the film location for classics such as Some Like It Hot and Saving Private Ryan, as well numerous other iconic films over the years.

The studio offers film and television production services that include film post-production suites and a seven-acre backlot where outdoor scenes are shot. Today it remains one of the UK’s most popular film studios, contributing to the country’s long history of filmmaking digital effects used in many modern movies.

From big-budget blockbuster features to independent low-budget productions, Shepperton Studios is well-equipped to help filmmakers create their vision onscreen.

Some of the biggest and most famous films of all time were shot at Shepperton Studios. Notable productions include:

  • 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
  • Star Wars (1977)
  • The Elephant Man (1980)
  • Shakespeare in Love (1998)
  • Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)
shepperton studios

More recent films have included:

  • Gravity (2013)
  • Prometheus (2012)
  • Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
  • The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Avengers

It is located west of London near the River Thames and is made up of a large number of different buildings housing massive sound stages, art departments, dressing rooms, make-up and hair departments, meeting rooms, offices, wardrobes, and workshops. 

In 2001, Shepperton was acquired by the nearby Pinewood Studios of James Bond fame.

Film shooting locations include ‘Stage H’, one of the largest in the entire Pinewood Group, which is 30,000 feet in size and can be entirely flooded for water filming creating a 250ft by 120ft by 45ft pool.  The site also comprises a backlot for outside filming and Littleton House, a 17th-century house that houses the production office and coffee shop, whose interior has appeared as the set of The Omen, The Mummy, X-Men, and Batman Begins. Littleton House’s formal gardens and lawn have also been used for filming, as has the surrounding woodland and river.

In 1931, Littleton Park and its surrounding 60 acres were bought by Norman Laudon, the owner of a ‘flicker book’ producing company. 

He switched over to filmmaking in 1932 and by 1936 the studios were dramatically expanded to include seven sound stages, twelve cutting rooms, three viewing theatres, scene docks, and workshops.

During World War II, the studio was requisitioned by the Ministry of Defence, after the nearby Vickers-Armstrong aircraft factory was bombed, to make replica aircraft, fake guns, and landing strips to be used as decoys in the Middle East.

Shepperton

The studios changed ownership repeatedly over the next few decades and the facilities were extensively refurbished in 1987. Since then, the studio has been used continually to make big-budget films and remains one of the most well-known production studios in film history.

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