The cofounder of the maker of hit shows including The Kardashians, the Friends reunion special and documentary series Sunderland ‘Til I Die has said that the north-east has been “utterly forgotten” amid the UK’s multibillion-pound TV and film production boom, and called on the government to back plans for a proposed new Hollywood-style studio complex in the region.
Leo Pearlman, a cofounder of production company Fulwell 73 which has partners including the actor and comedian James Corden, said that the region was a “black hole” that should be the focus of levelling up in the film and TV industry through the building of a vast production complex in Sunderland that would create 8,500 jobs.
“Last year, the total amount spent in the UK by studios, streaming companies and broadcasters on film and high-end TV productions was £6.3bn. Less than 1% of that was spent in the north-east,” said Pearlman. “In the midst of this boom, the north-east has been utterly forgotten. Between Leeds and Edinburgh there’s a TV and film black hole – the land that the industry forgot.”
Pearlman, who earlier this week was appointed to the board of Sunderland AFC and six years ago expressed an interest in Fulwell 73 buying the club, said analysis from the city council and planners showed that the proposed studio complex would create an economic benefit not seen since car giant Nissan invested in a vast plant in Sunderland in the 1980s.
“Sunderland’s beautiful scenic backdrops are a constant draw for Hollywood blockbusters – Indiana Jones, Transformers and Dungeons & Dragons – but with no infrastructure or crew to support those productions they come and go taking their budgets with them,” he said.
“The demand for studio space in the UK is huge. While the rest of the country has enjoyed this renaissance in the creative industries beyond our wildest dreams, we’ve been left behind.”
Fulwell 73, which has credits including documentaries The Class of ‘92, Ed Sheeran: The Sum of It All and produces the annual Grammy awards in the US, has teamed up with property investment firm Cain International to build Crown Works Studios on former industrial land.
The complex, which would cater to the filming of three blockbuster films and several TV shows simultaneously, aims to offer a northern alternative as TV, film and streaming companies focus on building, expanding or securing contracts for studio space primarily in the south of England.
However, Pearlman said the scheme requires support from the government, which has heavily publicised a levelling up agenda but earlier this month scrapped the northern leg of HS2 that was meant to help close the north-south economic gap.
“We need government support,” said Pearlman, who runs offices in London, Los Angeles and Sunderland. “Fulwell 73 and Cain International will provide the infrastructure [but it needs] a workforce equipped with the right skills for 21st-century production. But that skills base won’t be ready overnight. We want to work with government to bridge that gap and provide the right incentives, until the workforce here is ready.”
A government spokesperson said: “We want to maximise the potential of the UK’s screen sectors, including in the north-east. We continue to help film and high-end TV thrive through competitive tax reliefs, support for industry skills and studio infrastructure developments, as part of our aim to boost the creative industries by an extra £50bn and create 1 million extra jobs by 2030.”
