King Arthur movie filmed in Wales
Filmmaker Guy Ritchie shot King Arthur: Legend of the Sword from a base at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden and also used locations in Wales.
The period movie is a new adaptation of the English myth and follows young Arthur as he is forced to confront his destiny and challenge his uncle for the country’s throne.
Three key sets were built at Leavesden to create the run-down city of Londinium, the kingdom of Camelot and an enormous cave setting beneath.
These key sets were altered and adapted to form around a dozen separate story spaces.
Snowdonia in north-west Wales became the wild expansive landscapes that surround Camelot, following scouting across the UK by location manager Amanda Stevens and production designer Gemma Jackson.
“Gemma and I felt that the landscape should be one with dramatic, barren vistas that wouldn’t have changed for centuries, so the challenge was finding that in today’s [British] countryside, which has had centuries of partitioning and farming,” says Stevens.
The locations team spent six months negotiating with environmental advisor National Resources Wales to build sets in Snowdonia, which is designated as a site of special scientific interest.
Scenes were also shot in the Forest of Dean on the Welsh-English border and on the Isle of Skye west of the Scottish mainland.
Wales’ national park locations are regularly used by big-budget Hollywood productions as they offer wilderness visuals within just a few hours of London’s major studio facilities, while still qualifying for the UK’s generous tax credit support.
Numerous warehouse facilities have already been adapted into studio facilities near Cardiff and Newport. Production company Bad Wolf, based between Cardiff and Los Angeles, has also announced plans to develop a studio facility spanning some 253,000 sq ft at a business park near Cardiff city centre, which will comprise a pair of linked buildings.
Wolf Studios Wales will host production for Bad Wolf’s upcoming high-end dramas A Discovery of Witches and His Dark Materials.
Images: Daniel Smith/Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc/Village Roadshow Films/Ratpac-Dune Entertainment
Also on The Knowledge
Shetland wins double recommission
The BBC has ordered two more series of detective drama Shetland with the first (Series 9) filming this month.
Bank of Dave the Sequel begins northern shoot
Filming gets underway today (26 February) on the Netflix sequel to 2023 feature Bank of Dave with shooting taking place largely in Burnley and Leeds.
Filming underway on new series of Strike
Strike, The Ink Black Heart – the sixth instalment of the detective drama - has begun filming.
Feature film Lola and Freddie to shoot in London this summer
A new feature film, Lola and Freddie, will shoot in London locations this summer with Naomie Harris, Joel Fry, Jameela Jamil and Olivia Lee leading the cast.
Construction commences on BBC's West Midlands production hub as new series is greenlit
Ground has been broken on The Tea Factory, a new BBC production hub in the West Midlands that promises to be the BBC’s greenest building, with a new series featuring Billy Billingham to be produced in the region.
Ralph Fiennes to direct and star in The Beacon
Ralph Fiennes is set to make his screenwriting feature debut with The Beacon; he will also direct.