Terry Gilliam and Richard O Brien have thrown their support behind a campaign to save the famed U.K. film studios where the famous Hammer Horror movies were made.

The current owners of Bray Studios in Berkshire, England have decided to sell off the building so it can be turned into luxury homes, but the plans have infuriated Hammer Horror fans and stars including O'Brien, who shot The Rocky Horror Picture Show there.

A petition and a Facebook.com campaign have been launched in a bid to save the iconic site, and O'Brien tells Britain's Mail on Sunday newspaper, "I would hate to see developers turn Bray into some riverside homes," while Gilliam, who filmed The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus at Bray, adds, "There is still a place for the smaller studios like Bray. There is a feeling that things have been allowed to decay."

Simon Oakes, chief executive of Hammer Films, has also thrown his support behind the campaign, but insists the studios need a complete renovation, adding, "I would love Bray to survive as it was an important part of the Hammer story. But I was there a couple of years ago and the facilities were pretty dilapidated, even then."

The studios were previously owned by Hammer bosses, who set some of the company's most famous horror films there, including 1957's The Curse Of Frankenstein and Dracula: Prince Of Darkness in 1966.

After it was sold by Hammer in the 1960s, the location continued to be used for filming and was also used for some parts of sci-fi blockbuster Alien.