Save The British Film Industry.Com

CLINT EASTWOOD KNOCKED OUT BY X Factor SIMON COWELL, SAVE THE BRITISH FILM INDUSTRY  AND MATTHEW VAUGHN IN DEFENDING The Real UK FILM INDUSTRY.

Jonathan Stuart-Brown for www.savethebritishfilmindustry.com

The tragedy is that Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg meant well. They really did. But writing letters to the British Government  about keeping the evil UK Film Council  is the last thing UK film makers needed. Why keep the fat cat bureaucrats on six figure salaries eating £16 000 lunches in a £300 000 a year office WHEN they are cheering for Pinewood and Shepperton to build sound stages, sets and post-production facilities in Malaysia, Canada, Germany, Dominican republic and stand by for China and India. Everywhere but The UK. The UK film Council hated Scotland, Wales, the North, the Midlands, the East, the South-West and most of the South-East, and all the islands off the coast. There is no point saying that if you change the personnell, it might work. You could say that about The Soviet Union or North Korea. They kept hiring from their own and the results were horrific.

Matthew Vaughn eventually outed himself as another fellow lobbyist to abolish The Uk Film Council.

http://www.savethebritishfilmindustry.com/2010/08/the-pakistani-cricket-team-cheating-and-match-fixing-the-uk-film-council-100-axed-and-x-men-director-matthew-vaughn-so-nearly-gets-it-right/

Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg might want to watch and learn.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2010/aug/28/uk-film-council-arts-funding

So let’s be blunt. Please Mr Eastwood learn from Simon Cowell. Just shut up, stop writing foolish letters, and learn from Simon Cowell.
He gets on with what he does and is not prone to trying to run the war in Afghanistan or the Washington Federal Debt. It is always a shame when an actor and director is not briefed by an informed writer or researcher. They can just look stupid.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/world/news/e3i829ad7a89f41e337ad105b7c3bfa8973

Here is some wisdom from Julian Fellowes.                                                                                       http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/7941224/Cut-the-Film-Council-and-end-this-1970s-navel-gazing.html

He writes “Nor has the council managed to address the central issue of the lack of coherent film funding, which bedevils British film-making and frequently results in the selling of intellectual property rights abroad, so that when a British film does achieve international success, most of the profits pour into foreign coffers, failing to help our own industry”….well nearly right. The UKFC never intended it to be any other way. If they had changed things, then they instantly became redundant and would have to get real jobs. Their pitch was as a nurse for an intensive care patient who had to be kept in intensive care and not allowed to get healthy.

The Culture Secretary is not stopping The Lottery and Tax millions put into subsidising Hollywood productions in the UK. Neither is he stopping the 25% tax credit which Hollywood accesses by putting up a dummy UK company as nominal producer.
The Culture Secretary is merely axing the 75 fat cat bureaucrats who administer the Lottery Money skimming off 245 for themselves, and who were earning more than the Prime Minister and in an office which cost a $1 million a year to rent WHEN most UK cities would provide a bigger office rent free. He is stopping First class Travel, 5 star hotels,
$36 000 dollar lunch claims by one staff member. He is stopping bureaucrats dining at The Ivy (most exclusive restaurant in UK with 6 month waiting list for a table).                                                                                                                                                                                                              Moreover, he is not stopping it at all for two years…sadly, as nurses will lose jobs as will doctors, police and firemen to keep these aristocrats in their lifestyle on the tax payer. He is also letting the UKFC use their 6 press officers and now 20 others seconded to PR, plus a majorly expensive PR company  to spend, bribe and blog the message that they = The UK Film Industry and must be saved at all costs. In fact they = the enemy of a healthy UK wide film industry which makes movies The Uk cinema audiences and world audiences really want to see on the cinema. The UKFC should be axed immediately.

The march to save it utterly flopped at the weekend. It has no, repeat no, grassroots support now the facts are getting out. Indeed the Uk Film Council has ducked every interview in the last month. The average £88 000 salaries breed such arrogance. Very few of the staff turn up at the £300 000 a year rented office before 11 O’Clock and most go to lunch by 12 0 Clock.  Spielberg and Eastwood used to 7am starts would not believe the laziness they have unwisely defended.

As Oscar Winning British screenwriter  of  ‘Gosford Park’,  Julian Fellowes, writes: “ The Culture Secretary Mr Hunt is attempting to redress all this. He does not wish to give less financial help, and the first measure he’s introduced, regarding lottery money, will bring an additional £3 million into the pot. Nor has he any intention of reducing the tax breaks for production in Britain. Clint Eastwood, questioning the abolition, seems to have been told that these tax incentives are under threat, but this is untrue. Nor is there any risk to the British Film Institute, which this Government is anxious to endorse”.
Most UK film makers  enthusiastically support the Culture Secretary especially those under 25 and under 35.
http://www.savethebritishfilmindustry.com/2010/07/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead-save-the-british-film-industry-kill-the-uk-film-council/
True UK film makers, artists, lovers of film and art, and supporters of UK film should congratulate David Cameron and Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt. If people foolishly signed the petition to save the fat cat UK Film Council then Your heart was in the right place, but the very best bet of you and others getting a career in The UK film industry has been dealt a fantastic ace by The Culture Secretary in getting rid of the fat cat bureaucrats who were deliberately and systematically stopping people like you, especially people like you,  getting on the ladder.

The UK Film Council is putting around evil lies to continue its scam to prevent The UK ever having a vibrant self-sustaining film industry earning £25 billion a year and employing over 250 000 people in Britain. It opposed every move to equip The UK to qualify for the $50 million to $300 million Hollywood budgets, this is outside the 200 acres of The South East it had total control. It was against letting the rest of The South East and the rest of The UK getting into the real film industry, giving job opportunities to people in every county in Britain. It used its official status, its £70 million a year budget on the taxpayer and Lottery Fund to ensure that it could block any move to stop what The Lottery Fund was designed for under John Major to build sound stages across The UK.

It was mute as Pinewood-Shepperton-Teddington merged and was not referred to The Competition Commission. It was deaf, dumb and blind as Pinewood-Shepperton moved from a film making facility in Britain to being housebuilders. It was dumb as The Board and senior shareholder (a noted property developer and asset stripper) started to transfer the film jobs from Britain to Canada, Germany, The Dominican Republic and from 2012 Malaysia, then China, so that they could sell off the prime land of Pinewood Studios in South Bucks and Shepperton in west London. They were not in the end even defending The London film industry. It was about to collapse and still may.
http://www.savethebritishfilmindustry.com/uk-film-council/

Clint Eastwood, when in three years Pinewood Studios is a car park, and Shepperton a grocery shopping mall, then maybe you will realise you have been played for a punk.
http://www.savethebritishfilmindustry.com/2010/07/simon-cowell-would-approve-as-elstree-studios-expands-to-6-sound-stages-grabs-sherlock-holmes-and-is-gunning-for-007-james-bond/
At least The UK will have Elstree Studios which Hollywood has hired out for 2 years and there is no more room for Clint. Indeed Simon Cowell was inspired by living next to Elstree, getting Jack Nicolson his coffee, to enter showbiz. Such a shame The UK Film Council (which hated the UK except a very small part of West and North London) did not defend it with its £140 million a year tax payer budget.
Simon Cowell has developed British TV which the US and the world loves. Now we at Save The British Film Industry love Hollywood movies with big Hollywood budgets and stars. We love joining in and being writers, directors, crew, nominally co-producers, but rarely stars. We have the third biggest box office in the world which thanks to The UK Film Council betrayal the US owns. We have now 70% of the world wanting our products but The US takes all the profits, thanks to The UK Film Council betrayal The US takes all the profits. We make movies the US occasionally loves but the US insists we take a loss to distribute there. We love The USA, we love Hollywood, but we just love a fair and just division of the monies so we can re-invest in our own culture and stars. Similar to your own, often identical, but when push comes to shove like The Beatles, Stones, The Who, Roxy Music, Lily Allen, Seal, Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, Dire Straits, Coldplay, and Simon Cowell ultimately our own. We can be great partners, fantastic friends, brothers in film making, but we are not your vassals nor slaves. We welcome your investment and want to facilitate it. You can control those movies and keep the profits. But we want fair access to US cinemas, even to our own UK cinemas, without Hollywood stopping us when we invest in movies. Any chance you will write a letter about that ? 

Or at least read one from Michael Winner ?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1302023/Michael-Winner-Its-UK-Film-Council-calm-luvvies.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

http://www.savethebritishfilmindustry.com/uk-film-council/

Jonathan Stuart-Brown

http://www.savethebritishfilmindustry.com

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