INDUSTRY BRIEFINGS
WARNER BROS STUDIOS LEAVESDEN UNDERGOING MAJOR EXPANSION
W arner Bros Studios Leavesden (WBSL), home to the Harry Potter films, Barbie and House of the Dragon , announced a major expansion, adding 400,000 sq ft to its Hertfordshire lot. Set to be completed in 2027, this new development will reportedly add 4000 additional jobs to Britain’s film and TV industry. Only a short train ride from central London, WBSL attracts tourists from across the world with its Harry Potter studio tours. It’s also the British base for Hollywood’s Sunset Studios ( La La Land , Zoolander ) and a number of other US production houses. The WBSL expansion will add ten new sound stages, increasing existing production capacity by an estimated 50% and bringing an extra £200 million into the UK economy.
WORLD OF WONDER Warner Bros Studios Leavesden has hosted many illustrious productions – and is now expanding
EPIC GAMES RELEASES UNREAL ENGINE 5.3 E pic Games, creator of Fortnite and Rocket League, has released the latest version of Unreal Engine, its game engine targeted at developers. Unreal Engine 5.3 introduces a range of new features and improvements, giving developers and content creators more capabilities than ever before. The engine, while created for video game developers, is useful for filmmakers venturing into virtual production. The Cine Cam Rig Rail mimics real-world movement on a track or dolly, allowing users to rotate and focus images along a given path. VCam gives filmmakers the
ability to immediately review takes, simultaneously stream different outputs across team members and record at slower frame rates for normal playback. Version 5.3 introduces a range of experimental features, such as cinematic-quality volumetric
rendering for smoke and fire, orthographic rendering for architecture, a skeletal editor for animators and an update to Chaos Cloth for textile reproduction.
Unreal Engine 5.3 is available now from unrealengine.com
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