London’s Elstree Studios Will Shut Down

Elstree studios, the one-time heart of the British film industry where Laurence Olivier and Ralph Richardson launched their screen careers, will close in October.

The movie lot on which Alfred Hitchcock first rose to prominence as a director over 50 years ago has been sold by the Cannon group, owned by Israeli film makers, to a Spanish property company, studio head Andrew Mitchell said today. He called the sale “another nail in the coffin of the British film industry.” Seventy jobs will be lost at Elstree.