Richard Ayoade will start shooting his second film next week...

Submarine director Richard Ayoade will next week begin shooting his second feature The Double, inspired by Russian literary icon Fyodor Dostoyevsky and starring Jesse Eisenberg and Mia Wasikowska.

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Written by Ayoade and Avi Korine – who wrote Harmony Korine’s Mister Lonely – The Double is based on Russian literary icon Dostoyevsky’s novella about a disaffected man driven to near breakdown by the appearance of his doppelganger. The film will be shot in London.

The casting of such in-demand performers demonstrates Ayoade’s sky-rocketing influence in the film industry. Eisenberg played Mark Zuckerberg in David Fincher’s Oscar-nominated The Social Network, while Wasikowska starred opposite Michael Fassbender in Cary Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre. She also has a lead role in John Hillcoat’s forthcoming Lawless – which is currently competing for the Palme D’or at Cannes – after Tim Burton cast her as Alice in his adaption of Alice in Wonderland.

Ayoade has also cast Yasmin Paige and Noah Taylor in The Double, both of whom were integral to the success of debut film Submarine, which won the Jury Grand Prix at Giffoni Film Festival in 2011 and Best Screenplay at the 2011 BIFA awards.

The film is produced by Amina Dasmal & Robin Fox of Alcove Entertainment, and will be co-produced by Attercop Productions and MC Pictures. International sales will be handled by Protagonist Pictures.

The film will be released by STUDIOCANAL in the UK, and has already been sold in France (Mars), Hong Kong (Golden Scene), Switzerland (Rialto) and Portugal (Lusomundo).

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With her new film, Snowflower and the Secret Fan, now available on DVD, Chinese superstar Bingbing Li talks to movieScope about delving into her country’s history and the challenges of playing dual roles, as well as her experiences of taking on Hollywood in the upcoming Resident Evil: Retribution

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Adapted from the novel by Lisa See, Snowflower and the Secret Fan sees Li take on two roles; modern-day Chinese businesswoman Nina 19th Century traditional female Lily. Separated by more than a century, the characters stories intertwine in a tale of friendship and femininity.

Bingbing, how did you get involved in Snow Flower and the Secret Fan?

I was shooting a commercial in Taiwan [and] I got a call from [Snow Flower and the Secret Fan’s producer] Wendy Murdoch. She said, ‘Bingbing are you interested in working with me for a film?’ I was like ‘Oh my God!’ I didn’t even have one minute to figure out who Wendy was before she offered me a new job! I politely answered her, and said, ‘Thanks for asking me, but I just need to read the script and then I can answer your question’. But she needed an answer very urgently, because she needed to find an actor very fast. So she said ‘I will call you in 15 minutes!’ How can I answer in 15 minutes? I said, ‘It’s not enough time’. And she said ‘OK, I’ll call you in half an hour!’ So after half an hour she called me back, but I still said that I wanted to read the script first, because it was a big responsibility for both of us. So she said ‘OK, I’ll send you the script’.

I read the script and I loved the story. And Wendy was really persistent, and showed that she was very real. And she said the director Wayne Wang really wanted to work with me, so why not! I just accepted. I didn’t know anything about the original novel Snow Flower and the Secret Fan [but] after I read the script, I felt so strongly about the relationship between Lily and Nina. It was very touching, and very similar to my experience and my personality.

You play both Lily and Nina, characters separated by hundreds of years. Was it a challenge to play these two different roles?

It would be a challenge for any actress. For me, it was like shooting two movies! Plus I needed to speak English and Chinese. When I was playing the historical character of Lily, I needed to speak Chinese, because it’s an old and ancient world. And when I was playing the modern character of Nina, I needed to speak English. I invested a lot of my emotions in both of the characters. Both of them were connected, and separate. There are some very subtle things that connect the characters. The modern character and the historical character, I think they love each other. Nina loves Lily very much. She doesn’t really want to be Lily, but the emotion in their hearts is the same. The emotion is very strong for Nina, as it was for Lily. You can tell how much she loves her lao tong [friend for life] Sophia, how much she invests for her lao tong and how much she sacrificed for her. She wanted to fix everything.

You seemed to switch between Chinese and English very easily. How challenging is it to act in a foreign language?

My English is very poor. I needed to speak Chinese, and that was no problem. I have a lot of experience in shooting historical movies. And it’s not the first time I’ve spoken English in a movie, but I still haven’t done that many movies where I speak in English. So I felt tense and under pressure. I wanted to make my character very natural, and I didn’t want people to be able to tell that I have a language problem. That’s a little bit of pressure.

The script was bilingual, so I could read it and learn English from the script. I learnt a lot from the script. Every time that I spoke one line, I needed to recite all of them. I didn’t want to have pressure about my lines. I wanted them to come from my heart not my head; I wanted them to be very automatic. I didn’t want to worry about every word. When people speak, they don’t have to think carefully about what words they are going to choose in that moment. So I recited all of them, so when I spoke the line in the movie I didn’t need to worry about what I’m going to say. I just needed to worry about my acting. Fortunately there are not a lot of English lines in there!

The film touches on some really difficult aspects of old China, such as foot binding and the subservient role of women. Were you pleased that the script dealt with them in honest, clear way?

I didn’t know a lot about footbinding. And I think a lot of the Chinese people nowadays, those my age, they don’t know that much. This movie can share Chinese history with every audience; not only the foreign audience but also the Chinese audience. Make them understand more about how deep Chinese history is. We can share the emotion, the feeling of the woman in that age, how strong they were and what exactly they were. We can get a better impression of women and life at that time. Nüshu [Chinese script used exclusively by women] is a way of showing how strong women’s friendships were at the time, and how they dealt with their problems.

Did you have to do any research to play the traditional role of  Lily, for example learning to walk as if you’d had your feet bound?

Getting this role was very sudden, so I don’t have that much time to research. But when I was drawn into this crew, I learnt a lot from Wayne Wang and Wendy [Murdoch]. They gave me the novel to read, and hired a Nüshu professor who told us how to sing write Nüshu. It’s the most difficult thing to learn in this world! When I write the Nüshu, in the movie, I do not know what I am writing. There’s nothing that can help you remember. I just remembered them like painting a picture. But the writing is beautiful; it looks like ladies shapes. [These women] created these words by themselves; it’s a secret language between the girls. The men don’t know how to read it, they couldn’t understand it. That’s the special thing, I think. Even Chinese people have never heard about Nüshu. Nüshu was only found in the Hunan province, in a small village. It’s protected by the government now, after this movie.

As for the foot binding, it was very hard. They created this shoe that had a tiny sole, with a high platform like modern heels. The part of the shoe that was shown on screen was tiny; the rest of my foot was rising in the air. Nowadays, if we wear high heel shoes they would have a heel properly placed to support the weight. But on this shoe, there was no heel; you are standing on your toe. It can help you to feel how difficult it was for the women in that century. I know the process about foot binding. I used to hear stories about my grandmother, and one of my neighbours is an old woman, and she had her feet bound. When we saw her feet we were always whispering, always wondering why her feet were so small. We used to talk about the feet, but nobody understood the history. It’s many years ago, so we don’t know that much about it. It’s very mysterious and very interesting for modern people. I think after this movie, we can share the historical cultures with the audience.

Were you close with your co-star Gianna Jun, who plays both Lily’s best friend Snow Flower and Nina’s best friend Sophia?

Yes. I miss her very much. After this film, we got really close. I didn’t know her before! The first time that the crew introduced us, she was already wearing her costume and make up. I looked at her, and my first impression was that she was very cute, because she was made up to look like she was 16 years old! From that moment, I told myself I would never look at her as Gianna. I would always look at her as my lao tong. I am an actor, so I was very deep in the feelings I had in the film. So I just looked at her as my lao tong from that moment. I was already in love with her. I already looked at her as my best friend, like we already knew each other for a long time. I didn’t want to think too much, it’s just very pure emotion between us. We actually cannot communicate very well. I speak Chinese and she speaks Korean and we both speak English, but not very perfect English. So it’s difficult for us to communicate. But we can communicate by our eyes, and our body language.

You will next be seen in Resident Evil: Retribution, in which you star as Ada Wong. Are there big differences between making a film in China and making a Hollywood film?

Yes of course, they are very different. This is the first time that I am in an entirely foreign crew. Nobody speaks Chinese! The first time I spoke English in a movie was Forbidden Kingdom, and the second was Snow Flower. But both of those two movies still had Chinese crew so even though I was speaking English in the movie, I didn’t need to totally speak English. But in this movie, no-one speaks Chinese. I can only speak English. It’s difficult for me; I need to focus on them every single minute. And I can’t understand every word. To understand a line is easy, but to understand what’s behind the line, a whole culture, is difficult. Like when they are joking; can you tell it’s a joke? That’s the difficulty.  But it’s all a very good experience for me, and a great way to learn language.

Would you like to do more English-language movies?

Fate arranges everything for me. If the fates arrange things for you, you should cherish the chance to do it well, I think. When I was cast in Resident Evil, I thought it was a good chance for me to learn English, and to learn a lot from the different people who are working on the movie, as well as the chance to play a different role.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is available now on DVD from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Resident Evil: Retribution is due for UK theatrical release in September.

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Terence Davies' new film Sunset Song is set to shoot later this year.

Renowned British filmmaker Terence Davies has cast fashion model Agyness Deyn in the lead role of his new film Sunset Song, available for per-sale at Cannes.

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The Lancashire-born model, who worked in a fish and chip shop before being discovered, will star opposite Peter Mullan (War Horse, Tyrannosaur, NEDS) after her critically-acclaimed performance in François Archambault’s dark comic West End play The Leisure Society.

Fortissimo Films have acquired the international rights to the film, which is set to shoot later this year. They will be looking for pre-sales at the Cannes market.

Based on the 1932 novel of the same name by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song is set in poverty-stricken North-East Scotland in the years leading up to the First World War. Agyness Deyn’s Chris Guthrie must resist a stroke-addled father intent on beginning an incestuous relationship with her, while she struggles to find love of her own.

Agyness Deyn with the cast of The Leisure Society.

The project signals darker dramatic territory for Davies, who has hit a rich vein of critical and commercial success with last year’s adaption of the Terence Rattigan play The Deep Blue Sea (2011), the homage to his native Liverpool Of Time and the City (2008), and the Edith Wharton adaption The House of Mirth (2000).

Executive Producer Bob Last, of Holdings Ecosse Ltd, developed the project with Davies after their work together on The House of Mirth. It will be produced by Sol Papadopoulos and Roy Boulter of Hurricane Films.

Last said: “Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s epic seemed perfectly suited; a powerful story of love and loss set against the onset of modernisation, a theme that continues to resonate. The opportunity to bring Peter Mullan and Agyness Deyn together with Terence could not be missed.”

Agyness Deyn said: “I’m so honoured and excited to be working with Terence, he’s such an incredible director. I just hope that I can do Chris Guthrie justice.”

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Sony Pictures has announced that award-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin is to adapt journalist Walter Isaacson’s best-seller Steve Jobs for the big screen.

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Isaacson’s biography of the late Apple co-founder was published at the end of 2011, but became Amazon’s  best-selling book of the year. Commenting on the project, Co-Chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment commented: “Steve Jobs’ story is unique: he was one of the most revolutionary and influential men not just of our time but of all time. There is no writer working in Hollywood today who is more capable of capturing such an extraordinary life for the screen than Aaron Sorkin; in his hands, we’re confident that the film will be everything that Jobs himself was: captivating, entertaining, and polarizing.”

The project is being produced by Mark Gordon, Scott Rudin and Guymon Casady.

Undoubtedly one of the most successful screenwriters working in Hollywood today, Sorkin won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for The Social Network. He has also written films including Moneyball, Charlie Wilson’s War, The American President and A Few Good Men, as well as TV shows like The West Wing, Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip and the upcoming HBO series The Newsroom. He will make his directorial debut with his adaptation of The Politician, Andrew Young’s best-seller about former Senator John Edwards, as well as making his Broadway debut as a librettist with the 2013 production of Houdini, which will star Hugh Jackman.

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REVIEW BY: Jack Jones

RELEASED: May 11

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Faust is Alexander Sokurov’s curtain closer on a tetralogy of films that study the corruptive influence of power, and his own take on the legend of Faust is as visually provocative a film as you are likely to see.

After tackling Hitler in Moloch, Lenin in Taurus and Hirohito in The Sun, there are few people better qualified to visualise the disaffected German scholar who made a pact with the devil himself.

From Goethe’s own version of the Faust to Thomas Mann’s Doktor Faustus are among many different incarnations, the madcap Russian visualist Sokurov offers his own, unique findings.

Heinrich Faust (Johannes Zeiler), dissects corpses in his desire to further his enlightenment of the human soul, before being led astray by a mysterious moneylender (Anton Adasinsky). When a pure, vital young girl infatuates the tormented Faust, the demonic moneylender offers to take his soul in return for one night with her.

Though this is the crux of Sokurov’s Faust, the film is defined by the director’s unwavering desire to venture forward into the vast world he has created. Even when the film feels hectic and discombobulated, Sokurov offers such a large serving of delirium and unpredictability that it would feel churlish not to find enjoyment in this, even when Sokurov’s wanderings can feel aimless.

Even though Sokurov sacrifices plot in favour of exuding as much visual prowess as he can muster, there are several uncompromising moments that will jolt you at their sheer absurdity; it’s if we’ve been transported into a mixture of David Lynch’s surrealism and David Cronenberg’s warped body horror.

Some will see a visual comparison to Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, and it comes as no surprise the mutual appreciation of each other’s striking work resulted in Faust receiving the Best Film at Venice when Aronofsky was Jury President.

Perplexing, mystifying and verging on the outright bonkers; this is an incarnation of Faust to savour.

3 stars

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As the industry heads to Cannes, UK distribution and cinema company Curzon Artificial Eye has announced its second acquisition funding vehicle, named Curzon Film Rights 2 (CFR2).

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Following on from Curzon Film Rights (CFR), which has co-funded UK distribution rights to 28 film titles since its launch in May 2010 (including We Need to Talk About Kevin, Melancholia and The Deep Blue Sea, pictured above), CFR2 expects to acquire 40 films over the next three years. The amount of investment committed in principle to CFR2 is reportedly substantially larger than the original CFR.

As well as acquiring films for UK release, CFR2 will also look to obtain international rights on a small number of movies, working on a film-by-film basis.

Speaking to Screen Daily, Curzon Artificial Eye CEO Philip Knatchbull said:“Following on from the initial success of the first funding vehicle, we are delighted to have been backed once again by a dedicated group of investors. This innovative financing structure will provide Curzon Artificial Eye with a very significant boost to its own film acquisition resources, which will in turn provide the necessary resources to acquire rights to distribute the very best independent films.”

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Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins in Tim Burton's Dark Shadows

REVIEWED BY: Josh Winning

RELEASED: May 11 

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“Welcome back to the shadows, we’ve missed you,” intones one character in Tim Burton’s latest genre-blitzer. It could easily be directed at Burton himself.

Dark Shadows is a return to the kind of gloomy, quirky material the filmmaker has shied away from since Sleepy Hollow (notwithstanding Sweeney Todd).

With its gorgeously gothic prologue, Dark Shadows seems like the perfect Burton-Depp vehicle. Based on a little-remembered 1960s soap opera, the duo’s favourite themes are all present and correct – not least their obsession with outsiders attempting to assimilate into modern society.

As the auteur goes about crafting a beautifully tangible 1760s Liverpool – flush in rolling fog and doused in sea spray – the opulent palette is complimented with the kind of richly intriguing ‘origins’ story that the Twilight franchise ummed and ahhed over for three whole films.

Because rich-boy Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) has pissed off a witch (Eva Green). Venting her rage, she transforms him into a vampire and locks him in a coffin to fester undying until the end of time.

Snap forward to 1972, and Barnabas awakens to discover the now decrepit Collins estate is home to comely descendent Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer), her moody daughter Carolyn (Chloë Grace Moretz), useless husband Roger (Jonny Lee Miller), haunted step-son David (Gulliver McGrath) and alcoholic therapist Dr Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter).

Despite the impressive ensemble, Depp remains the star of the show. De-coffined into that goofiest of eras, his horror at psychedelic ‘70s toot is genuinely funny (Trolls! Lava lamps! Karen Carpenter!). Things hit a high note early on when, post-resurrection, Barnabas is confronted with a symbol of terrifying modernity: the blazing twin peaks of the McDonald’s sign.

But unlike the deft arcs of Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood, though, Shadows is a mess of extraneous sub-plots and surplus characters. It’s easy to believe reports that script revisions were being handed out during filming, not least with regard to the nonsensical, blow-out finale.

As cameos, barely-there romances and never-explained spooky happenings all chaotically collide, Shadows quickly forgets its own ethos (“Family is the only real wealth,” as muttered by Barnabas’s dad in the film’s opening moments) in favour of scene after scene of Depp’s wide-eyed, reactionary culture clashing.

Even Eva Green’s sensual villainess – rocking power suits, a big blonde ‘do and a rasping smoker’s drawl – proves disappointingly fangless, hampered by the film’s most puzzling of oddball B-plots (including warring fisheries, obviously).

Though it’s delightfully odd in places, and entertaining when it works, Dark Shadows is little more than a sumptuous mood board; a portmanteau of intriguing ideas with little or no pay-off. Burton’s yet to return from the dead.

3 stars

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Issue 28 of movieScope magazine is available to buy now, and the word from movieScope HQ is this is the best issue yet…

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We’re committed to producing a magazine that really does provide an insider’s point of view on the crazy world of filmmaking and so, as usual, we have some of the best directors, technicians and actors and executives writing exclusively for us – or for you – about what’s going on behind the cinema screens.

We’ve got an article written exclusively by Gareth Evans, the Welsh director who, out of nowhere, has made one of the best action films of the last 20 years;  Indonesian martial arts film The Raid. He writes for movieScope about the creative genesis of this incredible project, and the methods he employed to make it so visually astonishing.  “Once we got inside that building, I didn’t want to let go of the audience once,” he writes.

Elsewhere, Andrew Lang, the award-winning director of Sons of Cuba, writes exclusively about his journey to Afghanistan to meet the filmmakers who defy the Taliban – and risk death in the process – to continue making movies.

Closer to home, we get the inside track on Pinewood Films, the new multimillion pound financing initiative for low budget independent British films, from two of the main engineers at Pinewood Studio Group – Commercial Director Nick Smith and Executive Producer Steve Norris.

We also go behind the scenes of the first film to receive Pinewood Films funding; quirky comedy A Fantastic Fear of Everything, whose star, Simon Pegg, graces our cover. Director Crispian Mills and producer Geraldine Patten reveal the mixture of hard work and good luck that’s behind the project.

With the issue of funding as important as ever, we investigate the concept of crowdfunding as a viable business model. A host of experts, including Charlie Phillips, the Marketplace Producer of the Sheffield Documentary Film Festival and Tero Kaukomaa, producer of Iron Sky, give us their top tips for running a successful crowdfunding campaign. And, with post-production houses increasingly offering funding as part of their service package, top London facilities LipSync and Molinare give us their views in the post-equity debate.

We talk to Ti West, the writer and director of horror film The Innkeepers and without doubt one of the best independent filmmakers working in American cinema. In a frank and honest conversation, he tells us why he believes that audiences need to be more proactive in their support of independent cinema.

As the industry debates the best ways to tempt those audiences away from their sofas, Future Cinema founder Fabien Riggall talks to us about the importance of creating unique, collaborative cinema experiences, while VFX legend Doug Trumbull writes exclusively about his forays into the world of high-frame-rate filmmaking – and why he believes it’s the only viable future for film.

Of course, our regular 24FPS contributors are on hand to discuss the other pressing issues of the day. Industry analyst Michael Gubbins examines how VOD can take art-house to the masses, while screenwriting guru Danny Munso reveals how writers can – and should – take advantage of the current ‘found footage’ trend. And guest expert Martin Cuff, the Executive Director of the Association of Film Commissioners International, examines the role of film commissions in the modern production marketplace.

We’ve also got reviews of all the best films in cinemas over May and June, including Ti West’s icy chiller The Innkeepers, Lisa Aschan’s coming of age romance She Monkeys, Nikolaj Arcel’s period drama A Royal Affair and William Friedkin’s glorious return with the Coen-esque caper Killer Joe.

As always, movieScope editor Nikki Baughan and film critic James Mottram discuss a new release; this issue it’s Ken Loach’s moving comedy The Angels’ Share. 

It’s certainly our most jam-packed issue to date, and if you’re lucky enough to be at the Cannes Film Festival, you can pick it up in the main Marche du Film, as well as the Carlton, Majestic, Marriot and Martinez hotels. 

movieScope 28 can also be found in select independent stores around the country. To make sure you never miss an issue, subscribe to movieScope for just £29.99 a year!

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Emily Browning stars in Christopher Menaul’s new film.

Buyers at the Cannes Film Festival will gain a first look at Christopher Menaul’s period romance Summer in February, starring Dominic Cooper and Emily Browning.

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Browning has quickly emerged as one of the most promising actresses in British cinema after her lead role in Julia Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty, released last October, while Cooper has proved himself an actor capable of carrying a film with his portrayal of Saddam Hussein’s son in Lee Tamahori’s The Devil’s Double, which hit cinemas early last year.

The film also stars Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) and Hattie Morahan (The Bank Bob, The Golden Compass).

Set in an Edwardian artists’ colony in Cornwall in the years leading up to the First World War, Cooper plays the controversial English artist Alfred Munnings. Browning plays love interest Florence Carter-Wood.

Camela Galano’s new sales outfit Speranza13 Media has acquired international sales rights to the film which is produced by CrossDay Productions and Apart Films.

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Today sees the launch of a four-week consultation surrounding the BFI’s proposals for the future of British film, which have been outlined in its five-year Future Plan for Film: 2012-2017 New Horizons for UK Film.

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With the increase in Lottery funding for UK film, this draft plan outlines how the BFI proposes to invest the expected total of £273m, with an average Lottery investment of £57m for film per year. This breaks down into an average annual investment of £17m for Education and Audiences; £28.2m for the support of British film; £3m for Film Heritage; £1m for Research and Statistics; a £3m  contingency and an 8 per cent cost of delivery.

The BFI’s plans for the future come a year after it became the UK’s lead organisation for film and is a response to Lord Smith’s independent Film Policy Review which was published in January. They are broken down into three key sectors:

Education and Audience
Thehe BFI aims to ensure that every child in the UK aged between five and 19 is educated in film and filmmaking, and wishes to establish a UK-wide film academy to nurture future talent throughout all regions of the country. The proposals also outline the setting up of a national network of virtual and physical film hubs that will link schools, film societies, archives and community cinemas, as well as the installation of digital equipment in up to 1,000 community centres, village halls and other non-theatrical locations throughout the UK.

There is also proposed financial support for UK cinemas to access a wider range of films, so broadening audience choice outside of London, as well as a new fund to support the UK’s international film festivals and initiatives to encourage more people to watch British film on digital platforms including apps and VoD.

Supporting The Future of British Film
The proposals outline a 30 per cent increase in production and development funds  for British films over five years, including an emphasis on under-represented genres such as animation, comedy, documentary and international co-productions, as well as the launching of new talent development centres for UK writers, directors and producers. There is also an emphasis on new film training schemes, which will teach the UK’s industry workforce next generation skills including special effects and digital production.

The BFI also hopes to bring together partners including The British Film Commission, BBC Worldwide, The British Council, Film Export UK and BAFTA to work collaboratively to ensure and strengthen the UK’s position in the global film market.

Film Heritage
The BFI sees the UK’s film heritage as essential to the enduring success of British film, and aims to work in partnership to digitise 10,000 British film titles and make them accessible to an international audience. The proposals also advocate the setting up of a UK Register of Film Heritage to identify all British works, signpost where materials can be found and where rights are held, as well as the establishment of public/private sector partnerships to enable rights holders to digitise content. New creative and entrepreneurial partnerships to ensure access on pay per view, subscription and free platforms will also be encouraged.

Speaking about the proposals, Greg Dyke, Chairman of the BFI, said: “We have set out a bold, long term vision for film that will genuinely make a different to education, audiences and filmmakers and support the UK’s growth agenda by boosting jobs and the economy and stimulating inward investment and export. I would like to thank Lord Smith for his thorough Film Policy Review, which has spring-boarded the BFI’s own Future Plan for Film.”

Amanda Nevill, Chief of the BFI (above), stated: “British creativity and talent is world-class and our plan capitalises on that to help drive economic growth in the UK, support jobs and skills and incentivise new thinking and new ideas. But this plan is also about creating a new deal for audiences. This isn’t just about the next five years; long term the BFI  wants people to have a lifelong relationship with film, both the next generation of audiences and filmmakers.”

The BFI is inviting opinions ad comments about its proposals, and has launched the four-week public consultation via www.bfi.org.uk/future. There will also be a series of BFI-hosted events taking place at key cities throughout the UK; details can be found at the website.

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