Where's the pay-off for this? If it's costing £250m the developers will be anticipating, what...£20m per year as a return? Which is 2/3 of the projected budget of the newly proposed BBC Scotland TV channel, so it's doubtful much will be coming from that direction.

What would motivate a developer, whose directors all have experience of house building as opposed to film studios, to forego trying to build 500 houses on a (formerly) green-field site? Why not opt for a much cheaper brownfield site?

Genuine question.

#1 it'll interest them because when it flops in a few years time due to high running costs and no need due to green screen tech it's ripe for turning into resi. Cynical? Moi?

This will never be built. A puff piece for all involved.

Trojan horse perhaps....?

Regarding the trojan horse suspicions - I believe this was the basis for two very prominent planning consultancies objecting to the scheme on behalf of two major Edinburgh retail centres.

The fact that Midlothian Council did not support the project says a lot. The A701 relief road was a key issue for them, as I think this would run through the site. Difficult one for the government, given the profile and media angle.

Note that consent has NOT yet been granted - only minded to consent subject to a legal agreement relating to the A701.

Without trying to be cynical - there's been a massive explosion in the production of scripted drama shows in the last 5-10 years. Primarily this was in the United States, with channels like HBO, Showtime, AMC, USA FX, and other smaller networks vastly increasing their output.

But now its spread and you've got Netflix and Amazon spending huge amounts on new content, with a much more internationalist outlook. They're also all competing with each other to target specific niches, find something new. I can't find it now but The Guardian published a piece a while back about how there's very little capacity in the North American studio market as a result, so more and more productions are looking to move overseas.

So this might work. Providing that boom continues. Which it might not. Errr...

At last. If Wales and Northern Ireland can support a functioning film studio so can Scotland. Incredible cynicism for a development this country has embarrassingly lacked before now.

The 'cynicism' you may or may not detect has nothing to do with a film studio or its existence. It *may* have something to do with a suspicion that it doesn't need to be built by a company many of whose directors have links to housebuilders but none of whom have obvious links with film or TV production.

That they had to build it on green belt land, with all its attendant issues when brownfield sites were available raises eyebrows. If it really is going to generate tens of millions for the local economy every single year, why not go for the cheapest, most readily available option? If the studio is the key ingredient in the proposal, does it have to sited in a part of the country where house prices are highest?

I really, really hope it comes to fruition. You're right, Scotland does need a proper film studio, especially given the way broadcasting is changing and becoming much more internationalist in outlook. However, the suspicion is that in a few years the scheme will have been downgraded markedly with a couple of thousand 'executive villas' on site instead. I really hope that's wrong because to take the goodwill of professionals whose community has been starved of investment and forced to relocate for work while their industry booms globally, and who are desperately keen to leverage their support to reach any helping hand would be cynical beyond belief.

#8. So neither a former Ealing Studios director nor a former Warner Bros development manager count as having "obvious links with film or TV production" for you?

Neither of whom are listed as directors.

They're the CEO and development director...

Of PSL Land Ltd? Or the company which will run the studio once it's complete?

PSL. Pinewood rumoured to be operating the production facilities if/when they are built.

Okay, fair enough.

I promise you, I'm not trolling, but a £250 million development does raise questions. Pinewood's annual profits, after all its years of existence, is around £13 million. Obviously, this newcomer would take some time to build up that level of business, so perhaps a fair comparison would be with Elstree, which currently makes an annual profit of £75,000 and had to be taken under the ownership umbrella of the local council after a difficult few years. Elstree now hosts things like Strictly Come Dancing and movies like The King's Speech were made there and provides great benefit to the local burgh, but in terms of a return on investment, it's hardly a stellar prospect for financiers.

However, as I said before, I wish them the best of luck.

Fantastic news!