Barbara Broccoli and Judi Dench named top British film movers and shakers
26-Jun-2008 • Actor News
Share the Story
Contrary to its reputation, Britain is a film-loving nation. A little number-crunching underlines the fact. There were 525 feature films released in cinemas in the UK last year (a big rise on 394 in 2002). Between them, these movies grossed £905m at the box office in UK and Ireland, and racked up 162 million admissions. The UK now boasts more than 3,500 cinema screens.
With the British economy on the brink of recession, it is likely that cinema-going will increase yet further. As Mark Batey, the chief executive of the Film Distributors' Association puts it, "the great escape [to cinema] increases its value at times of economic turbulence".
It's an industry of haves and have-nots. US studios dominate. They will often pay more than £5m on British prints and advertising costs for blockbuster movies. Smaller British distributors will try to "get a film away" for £25,000 (enough for two or three prints) and then trust in the kindness of critics and goodwill of exhibitors. A movie like The Incredible Hulk will go out on so many prints that it will trample down the opposition. Contrast this with a high-profile British film like The Edge Of Love, which will be released on little more than 50 prints. While negative reviews in broadsheets can kill off a smaller film, the critics' barbs will bounce off something like Hulk.
For films to reach the screen, interventions are required from all sorts of people. Film-making is a mix of creativity, entrepreneurship, business acumen and blind faith. Ideas have to be turned into scripts. Scripts have to be developed. Then comes the battle for finance. As British producers piece together their budgets and assemble their casts, they must engage with lawyers, accountants, insurers and agents. They will vie for distribution, wait for a certificate and try to secure a release date.
While producers struggle to make their movies, increasing bands of British distributors scour film festivals and markets, looking for new features to buy. (Last year, 73 different film distributors released films in the UK). Even before they have acquired their movies, distributors will strive to convince exhibitors and broadcasters of these movies' merits; they will negotiate DVD deals and try to plan ahead for the brave new era of video on demand, although nobody seems quite sure when it will arrive.
In the past decade, the public film sector has grown substantially. Lottery money is poured into training initiatives and film education. Festivals such as Edinburgh and London have big premieres of star-driven movies while showcasing films that don't yet have UK distribution. Here, we profile some of the leading power brokers who keep the British film industry juggernaut in motion.
Noel Clarke, actor and director
The critics equivocated. The general verdict was that Adulthood wasn't up to its predecessor, teenage gang film Kidulthood. Reviewers complained about its "unrelenting aggro" and "overwrought melodrama". Nonetheless, when the box-office figures emerged (£1,203,319 from the opening weekend), it was clear that writer-director-star Noel Clarke had scored a very grown-up box-office hit. He'd also managed to to reach out to a young, urban audience who didn't necessarily care much what the reviewers thought.
Adulthood was shot on the west London streets where Clarke grew up. "Technically, I'm a statistic â council estate, single parent. I should be in jail or dead or whatever, but I'm not, I'm making films," he told Screen International. The actor and writer â who has appeared in Casualty, Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and Doctor Who â will now become one of the most sought-after young directors in the British film industry.
Clare Binns, Director of Programming, City Screen
If you've been to see an art-house film recently, it's a fair bet that Binns and her programmers at City Screen will have booked it.
Binns admits that she is a little "miffed" at the idea put about by certain disgruntled distributors that she, unilaterally, chooses which films show where across many of Britain's independent cinemas.
"I don't book cinemas for myself. I book cinemas to give a wide choice of films. It's about what we think people might enjoy seeing â what will stretch them or amuse them, or threaten them in some cases. It is all about diversity," she says, pointing out that the City Screen team consists of eight programmers.
Binns points out that City Screen is a commercial operation with a limited number of screens â it's not in a position to show everything just to keep distributors happy: "The problem is, and the reason why people niggle, is... there are, frankly, a lot of pretty bloody awful films out there."
Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, Working Title
Working Title may be owned by a US studio (Universal), but few would dispute its credentials as the most successful British production company of its era â and the one UK outfit that can compete on equal terms with Hollywood rivals. Under bosses Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, the company has turned out a steady supply of hits, among them Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, Love Actually and Billy Elliot.
What is the magic formula? Bevan and Fellner are past masters at turning out cheery, crowd-pleasing romcoms. It helps, too, that they've often worked with Richard Curtis, a writer/director with the Midas touch. Arguably, however, the real secret is their mastery of international distribution. First through PolyGram and now through Universal, they have managed to release their films widely and with huge fanfare. As Bevan puts it: "If you are going to be competitive in the motion-picture business, not only within your own market but within a worldwide context, there is one thing you have to tap and that is distribution."
Simon Pegg, actor
There aren't many young British actors who can successfully open a film. On the evidence of the British box-office success of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Run, Fatboy, Run, Pegg is one of them. Back in the 1940s and 1950s, British cinema had a number of home-grown comic actors (such as George Formby and Norman Wisdom) who were huge names in Britain (and, bizarrely, in parts of Eastern Europe, too), but who made little impression on the US market. Pegg shares their local appeal â having already made himself a cult hit with the Channel 4 sitcom Spaced â and yet looks as if he may emerge as a fully fledged international star as well. He has already had parts in Hollywood films (including a bit part in his hero George C Romero's zombie movie Land of the Dead, as well as the bona fide blockbuster Mission: Impossible III). His role as the Englishman in New York in How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (adapted from Toby Young's memoir) is bound to extend his popularity further. And in the unlikely event that that doesn't happen, Pegg is a dab hand at writing comedy as well as acting in it â he co-wrote Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz with the director Edgar Wright, another British talent making waves in the US.
John Woodward, Chief Executive, UK Film Council
Woodward has been head of the UKFC (the Government's strategic agency for films in the UK) since it was launched in 2000. In the past eight years, the UKFC's all-reaching tentacles have stretched into every nook and cranny of British film culture. It receives about £27m from the National Lottery and £27m from the Government for its activities, which range from production to audience-support schemes.
"We know that the real endemic problems of the British film industry are never going to be solved by chucking £50m at it â it is just not possible," Woodward said when he took on the job.
UKFC high points include backing Ken Loach's Palme d'Or winner, The Wind That Shakes the Barley.
Amanda Berry, Chief Executive, BAFTA
Under Berry, the Baftas have grown from a relatively small-scale event that used to be broadcast only in the UK, to a show that is seen around the world. Producer Duncan Kenworthy has called it "the pre-eminent awards show outside the Oscars". Now held in the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden, it consistently attracts A-list Hollywood talent while also showcasing the best of British.
Dame Judi Dench, actress
"Anything with Judi Dench in it," an Australian distributor remarked recently when asked what kind of films he was looking to acquire. Perhaps surprisingly, Dame Judi is one of the few British names that film buyers feel they can rely on. Foreign distributors clamour to pick up films such as Mrs Henderson Presents, Iris, Notes on a Scandal and Ladies In Lavender, in which she stars. The older cinema-going audience in the UK also seems to rush to see any film in which the grande dame appears.
It's not just Dench. British dames in general are seen as reliable guarantors of quality. Dench, Maggie Smith and Helen Mirren don't conform to the usual model of movie stars â they're not teen idols and they are all formidable stage actresses. Nonetheless, they've done far more than might be imagined for British cinema's export drive.
David Cooke, Chief Executive, BBFC
Under David Cooke, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has largely managed to steer away from the choppy waters that so often threatened to engulf his predecessors. There have been few controversies in recent years to match those of the 1970s, when the BBFC was excoriated for passing films such as Straw Dogs and Last Tango in Paris. It is a sign of changing times that when Cooke passed Michael Winterbottom's sexually explicit 9 Songs at "18" uncut, there was (relatively) little protest. Nonetheless, distributors still fret about BBFC decisions. If a movie gets the "wrong" certificate, that may mean its target audience is unable to see it. Meanwhile, the BBFC has become increasingly active in certifying (or refusing to certify) video games such as Manhunt 2.
Jane Tranter, Controller BBC Fiction
BBC Films has supported such recent projects as The Edge of Love, Eastern Promises and The Other Boleyn Girl. Its new projects include Revolutionary Road, The Duchess and a film based on The Mighty Boosh. There was alarm in the UK industry last year when BBC Films was restructured and plans were announced for it to move out of its offices in central London back to BBC HQ. Fears that the Beeb was about to turn its back on film development and production were allayed when its budget was increased to £12m a year. Tranter, who oversees BBC Films, reassured a fretful industry by calling it "a jewel in the crown" of the BBC.
Sandra Hebron, Artistic Director of the London Film Festival
The London Film Festival has to perform a delicate balancing act. On the one hand, it must please its sponsors and powerful backers, who crave an event full of red-carpet events attended by stars. On the other, it showcases huge numbers of films that might otherwise never surface in the UK. Many of the titles that Hebron and her team choose do not have distributors attached and are unlikely ever to screen again in the UK. What she can do is to treat "specialist" films with the hoop-la usually reserved for star-driven Hollywood fare. As she recently told Sight and Sound, "one thing we've made an effort to do is place these films in the most high-profile slots we have, for instance screening Silent Light and Tarnation and in our biggest West End venue. That encourages audiences to take a chance."
With some influential voices calling for the LFF to become "bigger and glitzier", the challenge Hebron now faces is preserving the festival's reputation as a cultural event while upping the glamour factor.
Tanya Seghatchian, Head of Development Fund, UK Film Council
Seghatchian's claim to fame in British film history is long since assured. In 1997, when she was head of development at David Heyman's Heyday Films, she spotted a newspaper article about a first-time novel describing the adventures of a boy in specs at wizard school.
Having helped usher the Harry Potter movie cycle into existence â and having also produced films such as Pawel Pawlikowski's My Summer of Love â she is now on the search for new British talent. As head of the UK Film Council's Development Fund, she is looking for fresh careers to launch.
Seghatchian was reportedly responsible for kick-starting Jane Campion's new film, Bright Star, about the love affair between romantic poet John Keats and his muse Fanny Brawne.
Barbara Broccoli, Bond producer
A UK film industry without James Bond is unthinkable. There was consternation when chunks of Casino Royale were shot in Prague rather than in 007's spiritual home at Pinewood Studios. Thankfully for the Brits, Broccoli and Michael Wilson have brought Bond back to Pinewood for his 22nd adventure, Quantum of Solace. They are, after all, steeped in Bond history: Broccoli is the daughter of "Cubby", the man who first brought Bond to the screen, and Wilson has writing credits on five of the series.
Meanwhile, EON Productions is beginning to look beyond the super-spy. In Cannes earlier this year, further details were announced of the EON Screenwriters' Workshop Ltd, a project to develop 10 scripts or high-concept, high-budget non-Bond films every year.
Colin Brown, British Film Commissioner
The UK film industry depends on inward investment. Brown plays a key role in courting the big American companies, convincing them that Britain is the place to make their films. Lobbyist, marketer, producer, diplomat, firefighter: the skills necessary to be a successful film commissioner stretch in all directions. The British film commissioner is there to oil the wheels and make sure that producers coming to Britain find what they need. When big budget movies like Nottingham, The Wolf Man or The Dark Knight set up shop at British studios, Brown is likely to have been busy behind the scenes, coaxing and reassuring the producers that they are in the right place.
Nigel Green, Managing Director, Entertainment Film Distributors
Nigel and his brother Trevor Green rarely speak to the press. Despite this, they have managed to build Entertainment into the UK's leading independent film distributor, enjoying bumper success with films such as the Lord of the Rings films, The Golden Compass and Martin Scorsese's Oscar-winner The Departed. Much of Entertainment's success was built on its output deal with New Line Cinema, which provided it with a regular supply of top-notch Hollywood titles. The question now is how the Greens will cope following the demise of New Line (which was folded into its parent company, Warner Bros, earlier this year). Still, given the bumper success that Entertainment is currently enjoying with Sex and the City, the Greens are unlikely to be too despondent just yet.
Tessa Ross, Film4
In Cannes earlier in the summer, Film4 revealed details of a bulging development slate that included Sam Taylor-Wood's The Story Of You, an adaptation of Zadie Smith's On Beauty, and Young Stalin, to be directed by Pawel Pawlikowski. UK broadcasters are rarely in a position to finance films fully and have sometimes struggled to have their contribution acknowledged. "One of the biggest battles we have is to make sure that 'Film4 Presents' is on our projects," Tessa Ross (Channel 4's Head of Drama and Film) told Screen International last year.
"Having spent time nurturing talent and projects, then to be scrubbed out of history is difficult. I have to go to my boss and say, 'It really was worthwhile. You get to play it on telly in two-and-a-half years' time. Sorry I can't get you to the Oscars!'" However, Film4 has been notably successful at branding its work. "Contemporary stories which are British-talent-led" is what Film4 under Ross undertakes to provide. In the UK, the UK Film Council, Film4 and BBC Films remain the three main financiers â one reason why their importance can't be understated.
Jeremy Thomas, boss of the Recorded Picture Company
It is a common criticism of the UK film industry that it is insular and even parochial. Jeremy Thomas is the industry's one true internationalist: a producer with both the gumption and vision to work with big-name, visionary directors, wherever they come from. In his mid-thirties, he produced Bernardo Bertolucci's multi-Oscar winning The Last Emperor.
Since then, he has worked with directors such as David Cronenberg, Nagisa Oshima and Takeshi Kitano. "A hustler in the fur of a teddy bear," is how Bertolucci once characterised him. (He meant it as a compliment.) Thomas's influence remains as profound today as it has for the past three decades.
Tim Richards, Chief Executive of Vue Entertainment
UK exhibitors are more sophisticated about catering to their audiences than they were in the bad old days of the 1970s. The Vue Entertainment cinema circuit is one of the exhibitors that has transformed the Brits' cinemagoing experience.
It operates 60 state-of-the-art cinemas attracting 30 million customers a year. Under Richards, Vue is experimen-ting with live transmission of sporting events and concerts and in staging gaming events. The exhibitor has shown live concerts by Take That and Kylie Minogue, comedy shows, Grand Prix races and football matches.
Gurinder Chadha, film-maker
Whenever there were public debates about diversity and British cinema in the 1990s, Chadha would invariably be called upon to speak as a token "British film-maker of colour". At the time, though, she couldn't get her movies financed in the UK. Her feature Bhaji on the Beach had been released on only a handful of prints and had sunk at the box office. Chadha faced enormous struggles in getting Bend It Like Beckham into production, but that film had a huge impact. Here was a commercial, mainstream, football-themed film with an Indian girl in the lead. In the wake of its success, Chadha (whose new feature, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, will be released shortly) was suddenly offered a host of studio projects and British films. "What I want to do now is forge ahead and say you can make films [in Britain] with people of colour which will make money at the box office. Just that is an incredibly radical assertion."
Amanda Nevill, Director of the BFI
Established in 1933, the British Film Institute jealously guards the National Archive, one of the great treasures of UK film culture. The archive â a majority of which is British material â contains more than 50,000 fiction films, more than 100,000 non-fiction titles and around 625,000 television programmes.
The Institute runs the BFI Southbank, the BFI's MAX screen on London's South Bank, oversees the LFF and publishes books and Sight and Sound magazine. Under Nevill, who became BFI director in 2003, it is proposing one of the most ambitious moves in its 75-year history â the creation of a National Film Centre.
The plan is still at an early stage. The challenge for Nevill and her team is both to convince the Government of the economic case for such a centre and to drum up private support at a time when costs are being cut.
Discuss this news here...
