The hills above Swindon could be renamed Wrollywood after ambitious plans to transform an airfield hangar into a movie sound studio were approved.

Filmmakers with a background in Hollywood blockbusters are behind the scheme.

Screenwriter and director Sean Robinson – whose credits include smash-hit movies such as Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner, and Mel Gibson’s Hamlet – has joined forces with producer Tyrone Edwards to form Dignus Films.

The new company applied alongside hangar owners the Science Museum Group for permission to transform a 55,000 sq ft building at Wroughton Airfield into a centre of film production. They say 10 feature-length films would be shot there over the course of 12 years.

Swindon Borough Council’s planning department approved the proposal. The hangar already had permission as a storage centre and warehouse.

Dignus Films said the the hangar would be the company’s "main shooting stage. It also facilitates film sets, crew and tooling equipment within the adjacent workshops.”

The company told planners making films at the hangar would benefit the local economy, adding “The proposed use will have a positive impact on the local supply chain with an estimated £60-£70,000 per production day being invested into the local and regional areas.”

The impact of traffic heading to the new studios was a concern both to council officers and neighbours.

Someone living in Burderop told planners: “The reality is that another increase in traffic with the developing unsustainable traffic situation at Burderop, on the lane to Barbury Castle is unfolding.

"How are 150 people per day going to access the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty site? Even if this number is 75 the same questions still apply re hard standing, parking, and access.

“How are trailers providing food for 150 people per day and trailers and HGVs, articulated lorries etc to carry infrastructure going to access the site?”

Wroughton Parish Council raised no objection and when the film company wrote to the borough council to say while it believed the scheme would provide employment for up to 200 people at a time, only 100 people would be on site at once – with others working offsite – the council’s highways officers were assuaged.

The officer said: “The film studios would generate relatively low levels of goods vehicle traffic, falling below the levels of HGV traffic that would be expected were the hangar to be brought back into its historic and permitted use as a distribution warehouse.”

The company also said it did not see the need to make some significant changes to the hangar it had originally applied for – all that was needed were essential repairs, in particular to a leaking roof, to make sure the hangar was weather-proof and safe for a film crew and cast.

Mr Robinson’s credits also include Kenneth Branagh’s Frankenstein, which starred Robert de Niro, and a host of TV shows including Doctor Who, EastEnders, Hale and Pace and Alas Smith and Jones

Mr Edwards worked as an accountant before setting up the company with Mr Robinson. The pair are currently working on Midas, a UK-set thriller.

Wroughton Airfield has seen plenty of filming before – from 2016 to 2019 it was used as the track for the Jeremy Clarkson show The Grand Tour.