Save The British Film Industry.Com

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Jonathan Stuart-Brown for Save The British Film Industry.

The Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Culture Minister Ed Vaizey have been outstanding in taking on The UK Film Council,the biggest barrier to The UK Film Industry blossoming into a new golden age. However, they looked naive in wounding but not killing off The UK Film Council fat cat bureaucrats who will confuse, mislead, lie, be very false prophets, be ravenous wolves who will devour the innocent sheep signing their Facebook Petition. You either kill the beast, stone it to death by cutting off its money, or you find out the hard way how dirty it fights with the truth the biggest casualty.

Bear in mind that UKFC has a scorched earth  policy and 18 months to carry it out. It has just decided to spend taxpayer millions on decorating its already well decorated offices. The golden taps are not quite as good as platinum with 24 carot diamond taps.

That being said Ed Vaizey has now realised that he has to spell out that UKFC do not use the taxpayer millions, six press officers, a huge PR and advertising spend, wining and dining, bribes, career promises  of advancement. That they do not cheat, lie and look after their 75 fat cat jobs at all costs. That they do not  go to any lengths to keep their monopoly control of The Lottery millions supposed to go into British Film Industry infrastructure.  Supposed to be distributed fairly, justly, wisely and honestly. That it is not supposed to be shoved to their own companies and elite in club mates. That the game is up, they have failed and it is time (in 18 months) for other people to have a go.

We wish Ed Vaizey well in getting the sinner to repent, but the smart money is not on it happening. Our advice to Ed Vaizey and all who have foolishly signed the petition to save the  UK Film Council is ….

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. ¹⁹Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them”.

Jesus in Matthew Chapter 7.

Ed Vaizey has demanded to know, demanded in writing of John Woodward, the chief executive of the film council, whether the quango had been spending public funds on campaigning for its continued existence and vilifying its critics. He  demanded UKFC staff  attended a meeting at his department…oh to have been there.

The PR campaign, professionally and expensively financed, kicked off with 50 actors, including James McAvoy, Bill Nighy, Pete Postlethwaite and Timothy Spall writing a letter (based on false information and statistics) condemning the Culture Secretary’s decision.

Pete Postlethwaite seemed to have forgotten he starred in quite a few movies prior to the UKFC existing. Well only ‘Jurassic Park ‘, ‘Brassed off’, ‘In The Name of The Father’, ‘When Saturday Comes’ and ‘the Usual Suspects’. Yet the UKFC press officers spun it that it was The UKFC alone which gave  Pete Postlethwaite a film career. Bill Nighy appeared in a movie 19 years before UKFC was formed, yet apparaently UKFC take full credit for him. The BBC work -paid for by Licence fee payers - apparently did not make him a household and international name. You wonder why he bothered doing ‘State of Play’ as The UKFC was his only lifeline.  Most of the 50 film star names came from the “Who are they ?” School of Acting. this was even in the profession. It was certainly true among national news editors. But UKFC spun it as proof positive that the entire UK Film Industry stars were willing to go on hunger strike to keep a body which did not exist prior to 2000, and which did not hand out its own money but purely the taxpayers. This money is still there to go into films. It just will not be minus the 25% cut the UKFC fat cats pocketed, nor see much of the rest diverted into their private companies.

Steven Spielberg comes to the UK with his projects because of the 40 sound stages we have at Pinewood, Shepperton and Elstree. Ditto Clint Eastwood on his recent production at Pinewood. The tax breaks (which are staying) and Lottery subsidies (which are staying and indeed increasing) will still be available to them and all the other Hollywood film financiers and producers. It is all about sound stages (which are in jeopordy) and financial sweeteners to Hollywood (which are not in jeopordy). The final thing people like Spielberg love is UK film crews, especially the elite of the elite Vic Armstrong with whom he has worked for over thirty years on action scenes.

Yes the UKFC could call in favours from Hollywood friends who only got half the story with the important half missing. Yes UKFC were on the phone, working the  emails, putting the pressure on for Hollywood mates to repay favours. The UKFC did this every which you can, and yes their friends will write letters for them. But it was all a scam.  Fortunate, Ed Vaizey is on to it.

Vaizey is rightly angry that the UKFC have been running a scorched earth policy and putting out stories that all the British bound productions from Hollywood are now off to Canada. They are not yet. They will be soon, but this is to do with Pinewood-Shepperton plc internal politics not The UKFC, not tax breaks, not Lottery money.

‘The Full Monty’, ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’, ‘Shallow Grave’, ‘Trainspotting’, ‘Brassed Off’, ‘Elizabeth’,  ‘Shakespeare In Love’, ‘The Winslow Boy’, ‘Mrs Brown’, ‘Wind In The Willows’, ‘Sense And Sensibility’, ‘The Madness of King George’, ’Gandhi’, ‘Passage to India’, ‘Room With a View’, ‘Four Weddings and A Funeral’, ‘Mona Lisa’, ‘The Long Good Friday’, ‘Henry V’,’Shirley Valentine’, ‘Educating Rita’,  ‘The Mission’, the Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan 007 James Bond movies, “Elephant Man”, ‘Bean’, ‘Nuns on The Run’, ‘Flash Gordon’, ‘The Shining’,’The French Lieutenant’s Woman’, ’Gregory’s Girl’, The Peter Ustinov Agatha Christie movies, ‘Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence’, ‘The Bounty’, ‘A Private Function’, ‘Clockwise’, ‘Withnail and I’, ‘Cry Freedom’, ‘Hope and Glory’,  ‘Wish You Were Here’, ‘Memphis Belle’, Chaplin, Howard’s End, ‘The Remains of The Day’, ‘The Crying Game’, ‘Shadowlands’, ‘The Browning Version’, ‘Little Voice’,  ‘Sliding Doors’, ‘East is East’, ‘Without A Clue’, ‘Little Dorrit’ and “Chariots of Fire”.