Bringing the inflatable silver screen to audiences outdoors

GEORGE Wood started his career on stage as an actor, but being knocked off his scooter on Elephant and Castle roundabout while commuting into a West End play gave him a business idea which has put Wood firmly behind the scenes.

- Lucy Tobin

"While I was in hospital with a broken leg, I kept thinking about an open-air cinema idea I'd seen whilst on holiday in Sydney," he explains. "I'd gone to a screening of an Eighties classic and it was a brilliant atmosphere - beer, friends, watching a film under the stars felt much more sociable and communal. I said, 'why don't people do this in the UK?"" 

His friends responded that British weather was the reason why, and he put the idea to bed. But then came his crash. "I blame the morphine in my system," the entrepreneur grins. "Hobbling around on crutches that summer, I put on my first outdoor screening of Some Like It Hot, in my local Dulwich Park. I'd just rung up the park from my hospital bed and asked if they'd ever had an outdoor cinema. They said 'no, do you do that?' And I just said, 'er, yes?' So then I had to do it - I hired a screen, and a projector. And the reaction of the audience of 500 people in the park made me think, this will work."

That was August 2008 - now Wood's Luna Cinema business puts on 200 screenings each year bringing in £24 million turnover.