At West London Film Studios, where Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso is currently being shot and major productions from Bridget Jones’s Baby to Killing Eve have all filmed, it pains owner Frank Khalid that one of his biggest stages is empty.
But he has a theory as to why – Donald Trump’s social media posts threatening tariffs on films made outside the US.
“Prior to [Trump] posting that we had quite some big major features come to us looking for space,” he says, “and it’s just gone very quiet since he posted… maybe it’s a coincidence, I don’t know, but I believe it has affected us.”
Frank Khalid, owner of West London Film Studios
In September, on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump wrote that America’s “movie making business has been stolen….by other countries…like…’candy from a baby’.”
Repeating a threat he’d first made last May, he claimed he’d authorised his government departments to put a “100% tariff on any and all movies that are made outside of the United States”.
For bigger studios, such as Pinewood and Elstree, block-booked years in advance by the major movie producers, his words haven’t had any immediate effect.
But, at smaller studios, like Khalid’s, he certainly feels like there’s been a ripple effect.
“We had a letter from one major big American production saying [the tariff] is not possible, [Trump] legally can’t do it… but at the end of the day, he doesn’t have to do it, the damage is done, isn’t it? By him just posting that… the confidence in the market goes down.”
As Jon Wardle, director of the National Film and Television School, explains, the industry has “always been a bit feast or famine, and we’re in a slight lull… it’s not quite the boom of what it was in 2022 after COVID, but probably at that point we were making a few too many projects.”
Jon Wardle says the UK ‘needs to be more committed to homegrown talent’
Wardle says, Trump’s threatened tariffs are certainly likely to make film companies “slightly more nervous” and “dither a bit more” when it comes to signing off on projects a few years down the line.
But he says it’s important to remember that US studios have “invested hugely” in the UK.
“Disney has a 10-year lease at Pinewood, Amazon has a 10-year lease at Shepperton, the investment for those companies is massive. And the other part of this is that it’s not going to be cheaper to make those films in America. In fact, it’ll be more expensive.”
West London Studios has 194,000 square feet of production space and is one of the UK’s leading independent studios
While the UK industry appears to be finding its feet after the knock-on effects of COVID shutdowns and the US writer’s strike, some smaller studios say Trump’s tariff threats are certainly on their radar.
Farnborough International Studios told us that while it has “recently hosted major TV series for companies such as Paramount and Amazon”, it has “seen film bookings and enquiries slowing down since the first sign of imposed tariffs”.
While West Yorkshire’s Production Park said they’d “not seen any slowdown”, a spokesperson for their studios said they are “tracking wider policy changes that could affect us”.
Mr Wardle says: “I think is it’s a good warning to the UK industry. I think the UK needs to take more seriously the commitment to its own homegrown talent. How do you make projects that aren’t funded and paid for by Americans or another nation?”
This year’s London Film Festival
With little detail for now, few working within the industry can fathom how a tariff would deliver the happy ending of shoots returning to Hollywood that Donald Trump might desire without driving up costs and stifling investment.
“There’s a huge number of questions about how you actually make tariffs work,” Mr Wardle explains. “It seems like a silly example, but production accountants: we train production accountants and nowhere else in the world does… we planted those seeds 20 years ago and we’re now reaping the rewards.
“It’s not going to be cheaper to make those films in America… so they’ll just make less.”
While Number 10 awaits full details of the latest US tariffs and their potential impact on the UK, a government spokesperson said: “Our film industry employs millions of people, generates billions for our economy and showcases British culture globally. We are absolutely committed to ensuring it continues to thrive and create good jobs right across the country.”
Listen below to Trump100 from May where we discuss Trump’s tariff threat:
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The madness of trying to second-guess what the president might mean becomes all too apparent at an event like this year’s London Film Festival.
Mr Wardle explains: “There are films in this festival that were made in Britain and in the US, made physically in terms of the shoot in London, post-produced in Canada, with VFX done in India…. how do you apply tariffs? At what point do you do that?”
Read more:
Hollywood is dying – but insiders fear Trump’s tariff threat may hasten demise
Trump plan for tariff on non-US movies could deal knock-out blow, union says
On the red carpet, actor Charles Dance – who stars in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein – questioned Trump’s knowledge of filmmaking.
“I don’t think he is generally known for his own understanding of culture,” he said, “this is a man who wants to concrete over the Rose Garden.”
Rian Johnson, director of the Knives Out franchise, said it was “dark times right now in the States, for a lot of reasons”.
“All we can do is keep making movies we believe in, that matter, that say things to audiences… I think we need more of that so we’ll keep forging ahead as long as we’re able,” he said.
