A FILM production firm responsible for the door which crushed Hollywood star Harrison Ford like a "blunt-edged guillotine" during filming at the iconic Pinewood Studios has been fined more than £1.5 million.

The 74-year-old actor, who portrayed the legendary character Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy, was rushed to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford after part of a door to his on-screen spaceship – the Millennium Falcon – fell on his leg.

Foodles Production Limited, a firm owned by Disney, was later charged with two counts of breaching its health and safety duties and faced sentencing in Buckinghamshire this morning.

The company, which was set up specifically for the making of the film, was yesterday fined a total of £1.6 million.

Aylesbury Crown Court heard that Mr Ford was reprising his role for the saga's latest film, The Force Awakens, at Pinewood Studios when he was crushed and "could have been killed" in the horrific accident during rehearsals in June 2014.

Prosecuting, Andrew Marshall said: "In any construction project there is a need for safety, it is something that has to be planned.

"During the making of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, the actor Harrison Ford sustained injuries as a result of being struck by a hydraulically powered vertical sliding door that was part of a film set.”

The door was operated by a person sitting behind a screen and pressing the button.

However, when the operator closed the door she did not realise Mr Ford was planning to back through and he became trapped, the court heard.

The A-lister was airlifted to the John Radcliffe from the set of the much-anticipated instalment in the Star Wars saga at Pinewood, in Iver Heath.

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Mr Marshall continued: "It is obvious that the door and humans should be kept apart because the effect of this door is like a blunt-edged guillotine.

"Mr Ford suffered fractures to his fibula and fractures to his tibia and he had a dislocated ankle.

"The risk was serious, it was significant and it was dangerous. The force (from the door) was capable of being massive."

The court heard the door fell down just "millimetres" away from Mr Ford's face, striking his pelvis and pinning him to the floor.

JJ Abrahams, the film's director, tried to manually lift the door off of Mr Ford but he was unable to lift its weight.

In a statement, read to the court, Mr Ford, who received a "large" settlement following the accident, said: "Protocol was not followed and the scene was different to how it would be if the door was to be closed."

The prosecutor added: "He had two operations at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

"Plastic surgery was required to his hand to repair the nerve damage.”

Charles Gibson, defending Foodles, told Judge Francis Sheridan, sitting at Aylesbury Crown Court, that an employee was sat near Mr Ford and was tasked with letting the production assistant know when to close the door.

"It is most unfortunate and regrettable that this went wrong," said Mr Gibson.

Judge Francis Sheridan said: "It's not a very good system when you think about the speed of the door and the star actor is the one person that doesn't know what was going to happen.

"If you have a hydraulically powered door closing and nothing stopping it other than human intervention if you look at perception and response times you are talking about 1.5 to two seconds of continuing damage before that door stops.

"Then you run the real risk that in the heat of the moment the lady who had to stop it will press the right button. That is a hap-hazard system."