20 Things You Didn’t Know About GoldenEye (1995)

9. Cubbywood

Goldeneye Pierce Brosnan
MGM/UA

To Bond fans, Leavesden Studios in Hertfordshire will always be the studio that Double-0 Seven built.

Eon Productions transformed the former Rolls-Royce engine factory and aerodrome into a brand new studio because their traditional home of Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire had been booked up to film Sir Sean Connery’s First Knight (1995) and no other film studio in Europe was large enough to accommodate the mammoth soundstage needs of GoldenEye.

During production, the crew dubbed it “Cubbywood” after the franchise’s beloved long-term producer, Cubby Broccoli; GoldenEye was the last new Bond film that he saw.

Sadly, Pinewood was largely unavailable for the next film, Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), as was Leavesden as George Lucas had booked it to film Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), so the production set up Eon Studios in Frogmore, Hertfordshire, whose sole credit was Pierce Brosnan’s second Bond adventure.

Leavesden continued to host other films such as Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow (1999) and the Harry Potter franchise (2001-2011) before becoming Warner Brothers Studios Leavesden, which houses the Warner Brothers Studio Tour London.

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I started writing for WhatCulture in July 2020. I have always enjoyed reading and writing. I have contributed to several short story competitions and I have occasionally been fortunate enough to have my work published. During the COVID-19 lockdown, I also started reviewing films on my Facebook page. Numerous friends and contacts suggested that I should start my own website for reviewing films, but I wanted something a bit more diverse - and so here I am! My interests focus on film and television mainly, but I also occasionally produce articles that venture into other areas as well. In particular, I am a fan of the under appreciated sequel (of which there are many), but I also like the classics and the mainstream too.