Peaky Blinders’ Steven Knight joins plan to ‘supercharge’ West Midlands screen industry

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Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight is one of the names to join a new body aiming to attract screen production to the West Midlands.

As some of you may know, the humble Film Stories empire of podcast, magazines and this very website all originate from the West Midlands. And in truth, growing up in and around the area, there wasn’t an awful lot of film production taking place.

But things have changed, and more and more of the British film industry is moving away from being so London-centric. And a new drive has been launched in the West Midlands to bolster the region’s screen sector.

The new screen body will be officially launched in October of this year, and the official name and branding will be revealed then. The aim is to attract more people from around the world to create games, TV and movies in the West Midlands area.

Already signed up are the creator of Peaky Blinders, Steven Knight, and the writer and director of the Nativity films, Debbie Isitt. Actor Adil Ray is one of the inaugural members of the body, too. The full list of members to date can be found here.

More details on the group will follow in the coming weeks. Knight for one has been very active in trying to get a £100m production facility – Mercian Studios – up and running in the area (he talks about it in our special podcast with him, here), and more news is expected on that soon too.

We’ll keep you posted…

Image: BigStock
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