Da Vinci Code prequel delay hits studio owner

[Sunite]

Da Vinci Code prequel delay hits studio owner

· Writers' strike pushes back Angels and Demons
· £9m wiped off value of Shepperton owner

    * Richard Wray
    *
          o Richard Wray, communications editor
          o The Guardian
          o Friday November 23 2007

A still from the film The Da Vinci Code showing British actor Paul Bettany and French actor Audrey Tautou

A still from the film The Da Vinci Code showing British actor Paul Bettany and French actor Audrey Tautou. Photograph: AP

Pinewood Shepperton yesterday admitted it will lose £3m after a major production, believed to be the prequel to 2006's smash hit The Da Vinci Code, halted plans to film at its studios because of the American screenwriters' strike.

The company - which owns Pinewood, Shepperton and Teddington studios - is the first large British casualty of the strike. The Writers' Guild of America is locked in a battle with the Hollywood studios, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, over the division of DVD and digital revenues.

The three-week-old strike has seen writers picketing TV and film studios and has received support from actors such as Harvey Keitel and Holly Hunter.

It has already forced off the air several American talkshows, which rely on teams of comedy writers to keep their hosts supplied with topical gags. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the Late Show with David Letterman and the Daily Show with Jon Stewart have all been disrupted. TV dramas including Desperate Housewives and 24 have also been hit.

Last week Sony admitted that its Columbia Pictures division had been forced to postpone filming of Angels and Demons, based on the book by Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown, because the script by Akiva Goldsman needed polishing. That work cannot be done because of the strike. The film, set to star Tom Hanks, reprising his role as Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, and Naomi Watts, was originally due for release next year. Now it will not be out until at least spring 2009.

Ron Howard, who also directed The Da Vinci Code, was due to film at Shepperton, which had also played host to the first movie. Shares in Pinewood Shepperton closed down 20p at 239p yesterday, wiping more than £9m from the value of the business on fears that other productions might fall foul of the strike.

Pinewood Shepperton, best known as home to the James Bond movies, yesterday refused to name the production responsible for its warning, saying only that it had "been notified by one of its contracted customers for a major film that they have decided to immediately shut down their production before shooting commences".

The company added that its contract will be honoured but the cancellation will "adversely impact" on film revenues by £3m, mainly in 2008.

Back in September, at the time of the company's half-year results, Pinewood Shepperton warned that a number of projects had been pushed into 2008 and as a result film revenues for this year might not match the £22.6m achieved in 2006. In that year the company benefited from a number of major productions including Atonement, The Bourne Ultimatum, Casino Royale and Children of Men.

The halting of Angels and Demons, however, has no impact on Pinewood Shepperton's plans, announced this month, to seek funding for an ambitious £200m development of Pinewood in a move that would see a New York sidewalk, Roman amphitheatre and a medieval castle built within sight of the M25.