Deadly guest at Pinewood Studios

Nov 17 2008 by Jack Abell

Pinewood Studios was thrown into chaos when a potentially deadly scorpion was seen scurrying across the floor last week.

Shooting of Prince of Persia, a multi-million pound Disney film starring Jake Gyllenhaal, was disrupted after the poisonous creature was seen by a worker at the studio.

It is believed that the scorpion travelled to the studio with film equipment transported from Morocco for the production.

When the scorpion was seen, staff raised the alarm and it was trapped in a bucket before being taken to the Animal Reception Centre (ARC) at Heathrow Airport.

The incident happened last week at the studios in Pinewood Road and it resulted in a section of the site being closed off while the problem was dealt with.

Andrew Smith, director of corporate affairs at the studios, said: "We did find two scorpions, although one was dead. The other one was caught and sent to Heathrow so the problem has been dealt with.

"They must have stowed away when a production moved here from abroad. Thankfully, the problem was dealt with quickly before the scorpions had managed to travel very far."