What the Hell is wrong with UK films????
November 24, 2008
I think the main problem is that we speak English. As far as I am aware the likes of Australia and New Zealand have the same problem - our product tends not to have a real unique separator from American product that controls much of the distribution. In France there is a real movement to make home grown movies because… the audience wants to watch movies at the cinema that are in their own language. So what do we need to do in order to elevate British films and to build a sustainable British Film Industry???
Well, first lets look at what we do have:
Bankable actors. Actors sell movies. No question about it. And we have plenty of great names. Daniel Craig, Christian Bale, Jason Statham, Gerard Butler, Kate Beckinsale, Helena Bonham Carter, Keira Knightley, Hugh Laurie, Kate Winslet, James McAvoy, Simon Pegg, Ewan McGregor, Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, Wentworth Miller, Judi Dench, Clive Owen, Sienna Miller, Rachel Weisz, Orlando Bloom, Ian McShane, Emma Thompson, Kiefer Sutherland, Jude Law, Colin Firth, Daniel Day-Lewis, Sean Bean, Ralph Fiennes, Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Helen Mirren… okay, okay. So you get the point. There is enough bankable UK talent to fill at least 24 high profile movies a year. At least!
What about bankable Directors… Er… Okay… Ridley Scott, Danny Boyle, Christopher Nolan, Sam Mendes, Tony Scott, Edgar Wright, Paul W. S. Anderson, Mike Leigh, Matthew Vaughen, David Yates, Paul Greengrass, Mike Newell, Ken Loach, Stephen Daldry, Stephen Frears, John Madden, Michael Apted, Alan Parker, Joe Wright… Again I’ll stop. I think we’ve established the ‘A’ list British directors out there… (One day you’ll read Richard Janes on this list :-)) But there are more than enough bankable directors to direct at least 24 high quality, unique and entertaining British movies a year.
So that leaves the crew… Don’t worry I am not going to list some of the amazing crew we have. However, some people in Hollywood seem to think that British movies have a small ‘look’ or ‘cottage industry’ feel about them. Ignoring the obvious examples like ‘James Bond’, ‘Indianna Jones’ and ‘Harry Potter’ there have been a number of movies made over the last few years that the audience would think were American. Movies like ‘Derailed’ or ‘The Up Side of Anger’.
So we have the ‘A’ list actors, the ‘A’ list directors and a crew capable of making blockbuster movies. So what next. Writers…
Ah… here is where we hit our first problem. Don’t we don’t have talented writers???? We have amazing writers. But their are two problems: Television and Producers.
Television: We have AMAZING television in the UK. From my traveling it is the best in the world. Brilliant, Brilliant entertaining stories - and lots of one hour specials, two parters or series where you can ‘dip in and out’ so to speak. Most of our great story tellers are writing there. And, they do it so they can pay the bills, so they can, almost for certain, see what they write get made AND because some UK television writers have created household names for themselves. On the other side of the coin, so few British films get made, their is a stigma associated with lots of British films, invariably it doesn’t pay great - or it pays the same as TV (unlike the US where a spec script can sell for $600,000 against $1,000,000 which makes it worth writing specs in between other work as the reward, if you can sell it, is so much greater) AND there are so few places that will pay for the development of a screenplay. There have been some wonderful television that would have 
made excellent, excellent movie material which could have done brilliantly at the world box office. I’m talking of Horatio Hornblower, Sharp, some of the Mi5 / Spooks episodes, Gulliver’s Travels, Shackleton, Man and Boy, The Second Coming… (I’d even LOVE to see the BBC allow a feature version of Dr. Who with Pierce Brosnan in the lead - I have it from a good source he’d be up for it!!) Again, I could go on and on. Some really great writing that would have suited the big screen really well and would have been unique enough to break away from American product both at home cinemas and internationally.
Producers: There is an enormous lack of them! I don’t mean the people you bump into in Soho House who claim to be producers! It’s always amazes me how many UK producers will introduce themselves as a ‘Creative Producer’. Meaning they aren’t really good with the money side of things, or perhaps putting together a unit, or perhaps working with the director to lead an army… No they are really good at developing story… Hummm… In fact, most producers who have claimed this ‘Creative Producer’ title went on to given me dreadful scripts to read. There are, of course, a hand full of really great producers who know how to put together movies and understand story - some names you’ll know and some names you won’t. But their aren’t that many. This is where Hollywood really gets one over on the British system. WE NEED GOOD PRODUCERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If we could establish a way to nurture talented producers we would be on the road to creating a sustainable film industry. We need people who understand story and the value of writers, who understand how distribution and sales work and ultimately who understand business!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are a lot of ways to find financing for British movies you just need to be devoted and creative in your approach - (But also have the cash to do it!!!)
Two Great British Producers. Tom Bevan & Eric Fellner of Working Title
So in summary… I, Richard Janes, believe the first thing we need to do to build a strong, vibrant and profitable British Film Industry is to find/train more quality producers and then fund them, even to a small degree, to work with writers, develop stories and buy options. Our British writers are more than capable of writing movies the cinema audience will LOVE!!! Funding films can come later down the line. The most important thing now is to have viable projects with someone at the head who can drive projects to success. I’ve got ideas on how this can happen, but this I will have to save for another day… But the idea doesn’t cost a fortune. Some one please send me a UK project so I can move back and be a part of the UK Industry resurgence!!!
I’m going to email a number of UK agents, producers and financiers now and invite them to comment on this blog (see comments below and feel free to add to them). Perhaps they can offer another side to the story. In the mean time, I’ve got a very busy week this week. Last week, we turned in the full treatment on the Disney Superhero movie I am writing - so I am eagerly awaiting their notes, I’m working on a new treatment for a thriller based on the international water crisis, we are trying to put together the financing paperwork for my Errol Flynn movie (it looks like it will be a UK/Australian Co-Production so the paperwork is huge!) AND ‘Fakers’ suddenly seems to be selling like hot cakes - so we are trying to deal with the paperwork on that. Very soon, when I pluck up enough courage, I will write a whole blog on the mistakes I made with both producing and directing my first movie!!!! Oh my!!!! 
Have a good week,
Richard
Lets make her proud!!
Great blog entry, thanks very much Richard. I think you have hit the nail on the head. We have a similar problem in Australia. We have some great acting talent and directors. The problem is most writers that are talented move to the US at the first opportunity because there is a lack of any support here. We have some very popular TV shows, mainly dramas and police procedurals, but feature films dont get much of an audience.
We have had a real shake up in the past year or so with a new government agency bringing in new rules and guidelines to govern how feature film funding is distributed. It does not seem to be getting any better because now you have to have an experienced producer attached before you can even apply for funding. There is no real way for emerging producers to get a go.
Great post. You’re right that the foundation in the UK needs to get stronger.
But have you thought about it from another perspective? Maybe it’s a good think you’re in the USA? What I think needs to happen is to encourage more international co-productions. I think it helps when government agencies forge treaties that encourage production between different countries. Think of how many different countries France has production treaties with (brazil, korea, etc etc.)
Check out the past short history of the Korean film industry. That industry and film culture came out of no-where (it barely existed before 1999.) Aside from India, it was one of the few countries where the majority of the domestic box office went to domestic product. And as the quality of the films exploded - their exports to other countries escalated as well. Japan, alone, was helping to fuel their industry’s growth- but what happened was a bubble. The korean sales companies operated too aggressively with their sales prices - and that bubble popped recently.
So the Korean companies in the past year or so have switched their tactics. They are not making DVD’s domestically (DVD’s don’t sell well in Korea and there is alot of illegal downloading online) and partnering with Telecom companies to distribute their films primarily in Theaters and then via online/mobile windows.
And (to my point) they’re now switching from producing too many Korean films - and focusing on co-producing with countries like France, China, Japan, etc to create content that can sell better overseas - while finding a balance of producing higher quality korean films (but in lesser quantities) that will appeal to their domestic audience.
cheers
yeah, the British film industry is struggling real bad, which is a shame considering that I’ve seen some excellent, well-done small British films coming out of the UK.
good blog.
Hey,
Great post! I totally agree, although now you have to be willing to recieve and read my script once I’ve finished it!
From a UK writer
http://www.specodyssey.blogspot.com/
The film world in Britain has America beat in one area: film education. From what I’ve seen, the British Film Institute is unparalleled in its efforts to create a sophisticated viewing public that watches movies critically and inquisitively. The BFI, English & Media Centre, and Film Education (three UK-based programs) have produced Moving Images in the Classroom: A Secondary Teachers’ Guide to Using Film and Television. This is a fantastic resource for educators seeking both to develop visual literacy in their students and to use the moving image to build transferable skills that move across disciplines. I haven’t yet seen a comparable, comprehensive plan from an American organization or institution. Great Britain is using these resources — plus the amazing talent you mentioned, Richard — to build a substantial film culture. This American girl is green with envy.
I totally agree. When I was in London, practically the only movies in the theaters were American–movies I’d already seen months before, too, of course–and I was just so sad to see proof of the invasion of American culture. I wanted to yell out, be proud of yourselves! I mean, practically the whole reason I was there was to experience a different culture, and there I was watching Casino Royale. It’s even the same with French radio, which, again, I mainly listen to for the French, but they mostly play American songs!!! I mean, when even the French are listening to songs in another language, you know something’s wrong. I guess I just assume every country is as self-absorbed as America, so it’s kind of shocking to go somewhere else and they’re fixated not on themselves, but America!!
And yes, Britain does exceed America in many, many different ways, probably most of all in their acting training, but like you say, it really does seem to be a funding issue. America is one of the largest economic forces in the world, so it’s no wonder that their bloody movies are everywhere. But it’s just a damn shame.
I think you may have nailed it. I’m currently a 2nd AD in the UK but want become a producer. I’m working towards coming out to LA to learn the job, so I can come back the the UK with the right knowledge. It seems that over here the current favoured route to producing is via script editing, which I don’t necessarily believe gives the most rounded industry overview.
Call me nuts, but there seems like there could be some quick turn-over with a kind of “producer exchange.” The indie film market in the United States has grown so tremendously since the late 1980s that, on the whole, producers on American films are by and large getting younger and younger.
By the same token, those producers are constantly struggling and competing in a market that has become over-saturated with small American independent films and they are looking to build their career. It seems to me that one part of the solution to the problem could be bringing these young American producers over to the UK to produce UK films.
While over there, they would obviously be working with UK crews. But it might also create opportunities for young Brits to start working their way up through the producership ranks and would build the number of qualified people to take over those gigs. This would help solve both problems on either side of the Atlantic it seems — over-saturation of producers in the United States, not enough in the UK.
Perhaps I’m just daft, but I know that I would LOVE the opportunity to move to the UK for a time to produce films. It seems that the market is more friendly over there to the younger generation of filmmaker. Also, it would give another alternative to people like me from having to go scratch it out in LA or New York (I’m from Wichita, Kansas).