Fox 21 Television Studio boosts for Valleywood film complex

A US TV giant is finalising a deal to take over a south Wales film studios which has been largely mothballed for the last eight years.

Dragon International, which promised 2,000 jobs, was plagued by delays, racked up debts worth £15m and eventually went into administration.

Only one film was ever made there, but now Fox 21 Television Studios is leasing the studios, dubbed Valleywood.

Medieval action series The Bastard Executioner is already filming there.

The first episodes will air on the FX network in the United States later this month.

Fox 21 is understood to have signed a long-term lease and invested in soundproofing the studios, which are working at full capacity for the first time.

The new 10-part series, about a 14th Century Welsh knight who is forced to become an executioner, is the latest offering from Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter.

BBC Wales arts and media correspondent Huw Thomas: The Crow doesn't fly but Welsh studio space in demand

It could mean a happy ending for the studios in Llanilid, Rhondda Cynon Taff, which have a turbulent history.

Plans were first unveiled in 2001, with the late filmmaker Lord Richard Attenborough fronting the project.

The movie complex was eventually built on a reclaimed opencast site next to the M4 between Cardiff and Bridgend.

In August 2006 it received £1.4m of European money but was hit by delays.

Fast forward two years and £15m worth of debt, it went into administration.

Rob Lewis, partner with PriceWaterhouse Coopers, has spent years trying to sell the complex.

"We worked out reasonably early on in the administration that this wouldn't be a straightforward asset to sell," he said.

"I didn't think I'd necessarily be here eight years later still holding the asset."

But with Fox in situ, he is more hopeful of finding a buyer.

The details of the deal are not being made public but it is described as a long term lease and it is far more significant than the short-term rental deal which saw the studio's only film - Ironclad - produced in 2009.

Economy Minister Edwina Hart said the creative industries were a "good spend" through hard work.

"Sometimes things change, series don't get re-commissioned but we have to recognise there's a good product here, the facilities are here and there are people who want to work here," she added.

But with the studios still in administration, Mr Lewis said lessons should be learnt about public spending.

"It's making sure with the public money being invested to seed these private sector projects that everyone understands the risks and what happens when they go wrong," he added.