Stars Fear for UK Industry

Stars air fears for UK film industry
By Neil Smith
BBC News entertainment reporter
The British Film Festival in Dinard, France, took place at the weekend. But away from the parties, premieres and prizes, concerns were raised over the health of Britain's film industry and the problems faced by both first-time and established directors.
For many of the celebrity guests at the Dinard festival - now in its 16th year - the biggest dilemma facing UK film-makers is getting their work shown in cinemas.
"You can make as many films as you like, but if nobody wants to put them on, what's the point?" said actor Timothy Spall, part of the UK contingent on this year's competition jury.
"The main problem is there's no distribution system set up in Britain to get your film shown," added screenwriter and fellow juror Simon Beaufoy, whose hit comedy The Full Monty won Dinard's prestigious Hitchcock d'Or award in 1997.
"And the few distributors that are left are incredibly obsessed with cast, more than ever before."
'Bankable actors'
"One has to bite the bullet and think commercially in this industry," said actor Charles Dance, who served as honorary president at this year's festival.
"You've got to offer potential financiers some kind of guarantee they might get their money back, and the way to do that is to have bankable actors."
But according to Stephen Woolley - producer of The Crying Game and director of Stoned, a new biopic about the late Rolling Stones guitarist, Brian Jones - there are only so many to go around. "One of the big problems is we only have a handful of A-list actors the Americans and Europeans respond to," he told the BBC News website. "Jude Law and Ewan McGregor are perceived to be big stars, so if they're in your movie you've got a much better chance of getting it out there." It is not much comfort for Dance, who is about to follow his directorial debut Ladies in Lavender with a drama set on the west coast of Scotland. "Regrettably there's nothing in the film for Ewan," he said. "I wish that there were!"
'Piecemeal'
"It's always difficult to find the money to make films, so it helps if you have a star," said Full Monty director Peter Cattaneo, whose latest movie, Opal Dream, was one of six competing for this year's Hitchcock d'Or.
However, he continued, the "piecemeal" nature of film financing means it is easy for a project to fall apart, even with a big name attached. "There have been lots of films where everybody has been ready to go and one of the seven or so investors has pulled out," he said. "Many movies go down that way. That tiny cornerstone brings the whole thing crashing down."
"It's an odd world," agreed Spall, who will shortly be seen as Peter Pettigrew in the fourth Harry Potter blockbuster.
"You find yourself attached to five or six projects that never get made." Perhaps that explains why Beaufoy - whose most recent film, Yasmin, premiered on Channel Four earlier this year - is increasingly being drawn to the relative security of the small screen. "At the moment for me, television is a much more interesting place to work," he told the BBC News website.
"You can have a point of view, and there are far fewer compromises being made."
More subsidy
One way forward, suggested actor Paul McGann, is to follow France's lead and increase subsidies for indigenous films.
In France, a percentage of every cinema ticket sold is channelled back into home-grown movie-making through its central film agency, the Centre National de la Cinematographie (CNC).
But just as important, McGann added, is to ensure British movies do not mimic Hollywood pictures in their quest for box-office success. "There's nothing wrong with American films, but Americans do them best," he told the BBC News website.
"The beauty of cinema is it's something that can be made locally and consumed the world over," continued the former Doctor Who, whose low-budget drama Gypo was received enthusiastically at Dinard. "We should back ourselves a little harder, and have a bit more courage and resolve."
Other guests at this year's event included Irish director Neil Jordan and veteran British film-maker Nicolas Roeg, who were both honoured with career retrospectives.
The Hitchcock d'Or - named after British-born director Alfred Hitchcock - went to In My Father's Den, a drama set in New Zealand starring Pride and Prejudice actor Matthew Macfadyen.
Story from BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/entertainment/film/4325826.stm

Published: 2005/10/10 09:55:26 GMT
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