BIRMINGHAM is reportedly waiting in the wings should Pinewood Studios' controversial expansion plan fall through.

Campaigners say the “greatest hijack in movie history” is gathering pace in the Midlands, which could urge the world famous studios to look beyond Buckinghamshire.

The historic sets at Pinewood have been used to film more than 20 James Bond adventures, and dozens of Hollywood blockbusters such as The Da Vinci Code, The Dark Knight and Mission: Impossible.

A huge demonstration is expected when South Bucks District Council (SBDC) meet on October 21 to discuss the plans for the £200 million development on Green Belt land in Iver Heath.

The plan would see copycat versions of often-used film locations like New York and Paris built alongside 1,400 homes.

Pressure group Save the British Film Industry believes the plans are “visionary”, but says it should go ahead in the West Midlands - where it is “both needed and most wanted”.

Jonathan Stuart-Brown has written to SBDC about the plan and writes on Save the British Film Industry's website: “The South Bucks locals do not want it as it will destroy untouchable greenbelt land. They are organised and even have a fast growing online petition to Number Ten.

“All three of the committees on The Stop Project Pinewood nimby groups just do not want Venice, Paris, Amsterdam, Lake Como near them.

“They expressly do not want ever more Hollywood stars and even rich tourists and theme park visitors on their doorstep.

“They are happy for it all to come up to our urban sprawl in Birmingham and Black Country."

The campaign has already won support from two Birmingham politicians, Northfield MP Richard Burden and Gisela Stuart, Labour MP for Edgbaston.

The site that has been earmarked is a former MG Rover works at Longbridge.

The Group Director for Corporate Affairs at Pinewood, Andrew Smith, said the proposal was unrealistic.

He said: "The British film industry is already established in the South-East.

"It would be unworkable to move half of the studios up to the Midlands, or to move the whole lot because the infrastructure is all already in place here (in the South-East)."

Should the SBDC planning committee refuse the plan, Pinewood could lodge an appeal, which would put the decision in the hands of the Planning Inspectorate, a national independent body that rules on appeals.

So far the application process has cost Pinewood Shepperton PLC more than £4m, while the company's profits fell 55 per cent to £1.7m in the first half of the year.

The film studios said a battle between US studios and the Screen Actors Guild hit film sales, with projects caught in a logjam, although the dispute had now ended.

The studios were built in 1934 and over the decades it has been at the centre of the British film industry.