Visitors to Studland in Dorset, were left starstruck after bumping into Hollywood A-list film stars – who had arrived to celebrate the 60th birthday of Oscar winning director and local resident Sir Sam Mendes.
Among guests to the party on Saturday 2nd August 2025 at Harry Warren House were Nicole Kidman, Andy Serkis – who famously played Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, Jeremy Irons, Mark Strong – star of The Kingsman films, and at least three of the stars of Sir Sam’s latest project, four biopics of the 60s band The Beatles.
Star of The Kingsman films, Mark Strong (right) posted a picture of the party on Instagram, along with Andy Serkis (left) and Jeremy Irons (third from left)
Two stars of The Beatles were spotted
Spotted on their way through Studland were Gladiator II star Paul Mescal, who plays Paul McCartney in The Beatles series of films, Harris Dickinson who portrays John Lennon, and Barry Keoghan cast as Ringo Starr.
It is even believed that Mission Impossible star Tom Cruise may have arrived in the village by helicopter, after a private car hire driver said he was instructed to stop while a road was closed to allow Tom’s helicopter to land.
Tom Cruise was known to have been on the guest list and is currently filming in England.
Several top stars who attended the party stayed at The Pig on the Beach hotel, which was closed to the public – although the restaurant remained open and some diners took to social media to announce who they had seen in the gardens.
The Pig on the Beach hotel was closed for the weekend, but guests eating in the restaurant saw stars in the grounds
‘Tom Cruise is landing now!’
Starstruck Hannah Marie Daly, who was in Studland on the day of the party, told Swanage.News:
“I was driving very slowly, as it was a busy day and there were lots of people walking along the road. I drove past them and slowed down nearly to a stop.
“I recognised Paul Mescal and Harris Dickinson from the new Beatles biopics which are being directed by Sam Mendes. I shouted, ‘OMG’ out of the window and they looked a bit confused.
“There was also a helicopter landing a bit further down the road towards the ferry and a blacked out SUV backed up to get someone inside, although we couldn’t see who.
“But we have since been told that it was Tom Cruise in the helicopter by a private taxi driver who drove the CEO of Fox to the party. He couldn’t believe it when they closed the road and told him, ‘Tom Cruise is landing now!'”
Sam Mendes was first night guest star at the 2024 Purbeck Film Festival, introducing his film 1917 at Swanage’s theatre The Mowlem
“I was totally starstruck!”
Hannah Marie added:
“I live in Bournemouth and had friends visiting from Norway so we took them to Old Harry rocks and when we arrived in Studland, we saw a blacked out car and a security guy arriving at one of the gated houses, so I guessed there was something going on.
“We saw lots of people turning up to what looked like a very exclusive party, a lot of them dressed in 1960s style clothes, so we thought it was something to do with the Beatles biopics, but we have now heard it was a 60th birthday party.
“My friend says she saw Emma Thompson in a white dress but I didn’t – I was totally starstruck and desperately wanted to talk to the Beatles stars, but I panicked!”
Purbeck Film Festival was thrilled when Sam Mendes, pictured here at The Mowlem, accepted its invite to get involved with one of the UK’s largest coastal film festivals
Four separate films about The Beatles
Sam Mendes is probably best known for directing two Bond films, Skyfall and Spectre. At least two stars of the films were said to have been at the party, Andrew Scott who played MI6 official Max Denbigh in Spectre, and Ben Whishaw, who played Q in both Skyfall and Spectre.
Sam Mendes’s latest project is directing four separate films about The Beatles, one from each band member’s perspective, which are due to be released as the cinema spectacle of 2027.
Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Ringo Starr and the families of John Lennon and George Harrison have all granted permission and music rights for the four films.
John Lennon had a well documented link with Dorset, having bought his beloved Aunt Mimi Smith a bungalow called Harbours Edge on Sandbanks, near North Haven Point and close to the Sandbanks Ferry.
At the time, in 1965, although Sandbanks was rising in popularity the house was only worth £3,500 but John Lennon paid £25,000 to clinch the deal.
John Lennon often visited with his son Julian and his then wife Cynthia, and continued to visit with Yoko Ono following his divorce. After John was shot dead in 1980, Mimi kept to herself for her remaining years at Harbour’s Edge until she died in 1994, aged 85.
Harbour’s Edge was sold shortly afterwards, demolished and the site redeveloped. The new house, named Imagine, was sold in 2021 for nearly £8 million.
The lease on Harry Warren House was put up for sale in 2023
Historic hunting lodge
Sam Mendes along with his wife classical musician Alison Balsom, bought a long lease on Harry Warren House in 2023.
The four bedroom former hunting lodge, owned by the National Trust, is set in four acres of private land, with views out to Old Harry.
It was built in 1886 by Walter Ralph Bankes who used it in his bachelor days for entertaining but never returned after his marriage.
The house was then leased by the Anderson family from 1926 when World War I hero General Stuart Anderson rented it from Ralph Bankes.
First hand accounts tell of King George VI, Montgomery, Eisenhower and Churchill arriving to see preparations for the D-Day landings.
They watched as a destroyer made a smoke screen along the coast to maintain secrecy before the operation itself got under way, with planes, landing craft and live ammunition, leading to several windows in the house being damaged.
The house was gifted to the National Trust in 1982, along with Corfe Castle, much of Studland and other historic Dorset gems held by the Bankes family as part of one of the largest ever bequests to the charity.
Harry Warren House has previously been used as a wedding venue and as a location for the BBC drama adaptation of E M Forster’s novel Howards End.
Harry Warren House was once used as Aunt Juley’s house in the BBC version of Howards End
