Cornish locations for The Kid Who Would Be King

Scenes were shot at Dozmary Pool in Cornwall, which has significance in the legend of King Arthur.

“Dozmary Pool is located on Bodmin Moor and it is one of the places which the Lady of the Lake is said to have inhabited,” says Cornish.

“It’s unusually high above sea level for there to be a body of water. It’s neither a pond, nor a lake, but it sits in the middle of the grass as if it’s been plonked there. You can really imagine a hand with a sword coming out of it.

“The first time I visited, there was a very heavy mist. You couldn’t see the edges of the lake, so you couldn’t tell how big it was, or how deep, and it had this ethereal atmosphere.”

The village of Minions on the eastern border of Bodmin became a key location, as did The Hurlers Stones, a collection of prehistoric stone circles near Minions managed by the Cornwall Heritage Trust.

Tintagel Castle, dating back to the 13th century, and Tintagel town on the Cornish coast, also became filming locations. The castle has a connection to the Arthurian legend as the place where the English king is said to have been conceived.

Elsewhere, the Ark Academy in Putney in south-west London stood in for the school attended by Alex and his friends.

While much of the movie was shot on location, Cornish and his team used Warner Bros Studios Leavesden near London as a production base over the course of the 17-week shoot. Morgana’s underworld home was built on the facility’s stages, as was a recreation of Dozmary Pool.

Warner Bros Studios Leavesden is one of the UK’s biggest production facilities. The studios are home to JK Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts franchise and have also hosted Wonder Woman and the Mission: Impossible franchise.

Producers shooting in Cornwall have the option of using The Bottle Yard Studios in nearby Bristol, which offers eight stages and has been used for TV dramas including Poldark and Fortitude.

See KFTV's production guide for more on filming in the UK.

Images: 20th Century Fox