By SKillBot February 22, 2000 11:56 PM
The legendary Pinewood Studios - home to the James Bond films - were bought by an investment group Tuesday for $99.2 million.?The studios, built by film mogul J.?Arthur Rank in the 1930s, were sold to a group led by Michael Grade, former head of Britain's Channel 4.?The most recent figures, for 1998, show the studios made an underlying profit of $7 million on $21.2 million of turnover.?Pinewood hit financial difficulties shortly after its creation, but was requisitioned during World War II to make documentaries and entered its heyday soon after peace was declared.?A run of James Bond hits, starting with "Dr.?No" in 1962 and running through last year's "The World Is Not Enough," secured its position as one of the world's most successful studios.?Recent movies made at Pinewood include Stanley Kubrick's swan song, "Eyes Wide Shut," and "Entrapment," starring Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones.?It has been used in the past by such directors as Francois Truffaut and Charlie Chaplin.? This story was shamelessly ripped off of The Nando Times