The crew of BBC Two’s Dragons’ Den stop for a chat by the new Bond set. Extras from The Wolf Man, a film starring Sir Anthony Hopkins and Benicio Del Toro, have a bite to eat in the canteen opposite the cast of Sky One’s Gladiators. This is Pinewood, where Hollywood’s blockbusters are produced side-by-side with the lower-budget world of the small screen.

Moreover, Pinewood’s melting pot is about to have a few more ingredients added. Ivan Dunleavy, Pinewood Shepperton’s chief executive, wants to develop his creative hub farther, with other sub-sectors of the media world, such as computer games groups, advertising agencies and internet innovators joining the film and television industries in the heart of the Buckinghamshire countryside.

Mr Dunleavy said: “Computer games are becoming more important than ever to the film industry. It makes sense for them to be made alongside the film. They manage to create industry hubs in places such as Canary Wharf. Why is there not an equivalent for the media?”

The group, which is chaired by Michael Grade, the ITV executive chairman, has had a challenging year. The writers’ strike in Hollywood meant that it missed out on Angels & Demons, the sequel to The Da Vinci Code, which hit revenues to the tune £3 million. The group has also been hurt by a weak dollar and is cautious about the pending strike by actors in the United States.

Yet Mr Dunleavy hopes that his plans to attract other creative industries to Pinewood will bolster its balance sheet. The group is two months into building a new film postproduction facility for Technicolor on the Pinewood Studios complex and Mr Dunleavy expects others to leave Soho’s postproduction hub for Iver Heath.

“It is becoming increasingly difficult to operate within Soho. As CGI [computer-generated imagery] teams get bigger, they need greater floor space and it is not easy to find that in Soho,” Mr Dunleavy said.

He added that, as advertising has become increasingly cinematic, citing the Sony Bravia Balls video, film studios will become more important. On a visit to Pinewood’s celebrated underwater stage, the setting for the death of Eva Green’s character in Casino Royale, a production crew is filming a commercial.

Mr Dunleavy, quietly spoken, imposing in stature and with a background as a finance director, is very much the serious businessman. He refuses to comment on whether he gets a buzz from seeing celebrities people such as Daniel Craig, James Bond himself, at work each day, saying: “This is very much a working environment. It would be wrong to approach anybody.”

Apart from the odd resonance of 007, with road names such as Goldfinger Avenue, and an office cabinet displaying a few Oscars, Pinewood is disappointingly unglamorous. It bears a closer relationship to a building site than the studio behind recent blockbusters such as The Bourne Ultimatum and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

It is not unlike a factory floor, with scaffolders building sets, forklift trucks carrying props, plasterers’ and carpenters’ workshops and dry-cleaners preparing costumes for the next day of shooting.

However, a new scheme could change Pinewood’s appearance for ever, with the quintessentially British studio – set in the grounds of Heatherden Hall, a Victorian manor house built in Georgian style – attempting to take on Hollywood with a series of permanent mock town-scapes.

At the end of this year, Mr Dunleavy will submit plans for the £200 million Project Pinewood, which will centre on a 100-acre site next to the studios. He is seeking planning permission for an unprecedented expansion featuring state-of-the-art developments including a backdrop of downtown New York, a full-sized replica of a medieval castle, a Roman amphitheatre and mock-ups of Venice, Paris and Prague.

Mr Dunleavy is confident that the funding will be secured with relative ease. Despite the recent seismic waves that have shaken the wider economy, he believes that his industry is relatively recession-proof.

“While films are often expensive to make, DVDs and cinema tickets are inexpensive. Films are often a welcome relief from day-to-day stresses,” he said, convinced that the industry would hold up well in a down-turn.

Despite this ambitious project, Pinewood is also planning to dilute its exposure to the volatility of the industry by putting a great deal of effort into expanding its television business. Mr Dunleavy said that television, which accounts for one third of group revenues, could increase to 50 per cent in the next couple of years.

Recent deals include Gladiators and BBC Three’s Lily Allen and Friends. Pinewood is also the home of The Weakest Link and My Family.

Sources expect EastEnders, which is widely tipped to leave Elstree Studios, will be the studio’s next big win, but the ever-professional Mr Dunleavy will not bite: “Ask the BBC – it’s not my position to comment,” he said.

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