TOMB RAIDER SET AT PINEWOOD STUDIOS

[ 22 September 2000 ]

With filming taking place in Iceland and the Himalayas, conversion of Europe's largest sound stage continues as carpenters, designers and floor managers weave there magic converting a former James Bond sound stage into a set for the new Tomb Raider movie. "Vlad the Inhaler", according to IGN Film Force, went undercover at Pinewood Studios, England and snuck out some photos of filming in progress. The architecture of the set suggests a scene from ancient Greece, althouth the exact storyline has been kept very much under wraps.

Nested 20 miles from London, Pinewood Studios boasts itself as a full-service production commuity converting 60 years of movie experience and hosting some major motion pictures. Established in 1936 by entrepreneur Charles Boot and J. Arthur Rank, Pinewood aquired it's name from the rolling Pine trees which line it's estate. Some of Pinewood Studios most famous residents have been the James Bond movies, with the exception of GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies which were shot elswhere.

In 1995, one of the biggest projects undertaken in the worlds most famous studio set began production, the formation of the First Knight set starring Sean Connery, forcing the producers of GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, 30 miles away to a disused airfield at Leavesden. Broccoli and Wilson returned to their familar sound stage at Pinewood for the 2000 release of The World Is Not Enough. Pinewood today is owned and operated by Rank Entertainment, and boasts a 45,000 square foot sound stage, and Europes biggest exterior tank.

Dominating the Tomb Raider contingent on the Pinewood set is the Temple of Ten Thousand Shadows where a fiendish battle to the death will be fought between the forces of good and evil.