LONDON A make-believe world where visitors can pretend they are a soaring Superman or a tiny Borrower is being re-created for a new film museum. The Movieum will open in County Hall on February 22, and the organisers expect up to 500,000 visitors a year.

The public will be taken behind the scenes of the British film industry with more than 4,000 original props and sets from films such as Thunderbirds, Gladiator and Elizabeth, as well as the classics. Exhibits will trace the history of Pinewood Studios and demonstrate the contributions made by special effects, make-up, wardrobe and animatronics. The museum will fill a gap left when the Museum of the Moving Image in London closed in 1999.

Although films such as the Star Wars trilogy and the latest Batman were made possible by Hollywood, they feature in The Movieum as they were made in England. Jonathon Sands, a director of the museum, said: “We want to illustrate the ‘Bet you didn’t know this was made in England’ angle. The American industry is actually produced by British talent.”

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