George Clooney's The Boys in the Boat to shoot at new UK studio

George Clooney and Grant Heslov's directorial feature The Boys in the Boat, starring Callum Turner, will be the first production to use Stage Fifty's new Winnersh Film Studios in Berkshire, as exclusively revealed on our sister site, The Knowledge. 

Shooting of the hotly-anticipated historical drama is also reportedly due to take place in Los Angeles and Berlin.

Clooney and Heslov are producing the film via their label Smokehouse Pictures, alongside MGM, with production set to begin this Spring.

Mark L Smith and Chris Weitz have adapted the screenplay from Daniel James Brown's best-selling novel The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The drama follows the University of Washington men’s rowing team, who were sons of loggers, shipyard workers and farmers, but shocked the world at the 1936 Berlin Olympics when as underdogs they went on to win gold, defeating their elite rivals as well as the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler. 

It seems Clooney has got his wish in terms of location: in an article in Baz Bamigboye’s Daily Mail column in December 2021, the A-lister quipped that he hoped to shoot the rowing scenes “at the bottom of my garden” – the star has a home in Sonning, Berkshire, on the Thames. 

Winnersh Film Studios is the second film studio to be opened by Stage Fifty, with Farnborough Film Studios having opened last year. 

The latter has already hosted filming on two major Hartwood Films dramas, Inside Man and The Devil’s Hour, both of which shot at Farnborough from June last year. 

British actor Turner's star has risen since his breakout role in Jeremy Saulnier’s thriller Green Room. He was recently chosen to star in Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg’s Masters of the Air for Apple. Directed by Cary Fukunaga, the limited series is a continuation of the Band of Brothers and The Pacific franchise.