Written by on Jan 12, 2015. Posted in Production News

Disney films fairytale adaptation Into The Woods in UK and in studio forest

Disney filmed its new musical fairytale Into The Woods on location in southern England and also built a specially-designed forest set at Shepperton Studios. The story blends several popular fairytales in an adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s theatre musical.

Location filming took place in Surrey, Hertfordshire, Kent and Buckinghamshire, and also at Dover Castle, which was digitally destroyed for an earthquake sequence.

“It’s so rich, you know, England in terms of so many things we needed for fairytales,” director Rob Marshall told Creative England, which helped service the shoot.

“It has period villages still. It has magnificent forests and woods with ancient trees with scale and size and that was thrilling to find. It has castles, which is part of our fairytale world. It just lends itself to that so beautifully.”

Disney has expanded its UK presence in recent years with its subsidiaries Lucasfilm and Marvel basing big-budget features like Guardians of the Galaxy, The Avengers: Age of Ultron and Star Wars: The Force Awakens in London.

The company has also shifted to western England, shooting its musical fairytale TV series Galavant on location in Bristol and in southern Wales through ABC Studios.

London is under pressure to offer more studio space to cater for the massive international demand created in part by the UK’s generous filming incentive programme.

Pinewood Studios will begin the first phase of a long-planned expansion in the next few months, having been granted government approval last summer. The facility is currently home to new Bond movie Spectre and will host standalone feature Star Wars 8 later in the year.

(Image: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)