Steven Spielberg's studio joins fight to save Film Council from cutting room floor
The Hollywood film studio headed by Steven Spielberg today backed the campaign to save the UK Film Council.
DreamWorks Studios, whose films include Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan and War of the Worlds, has written to Chancellor George Osborne to express concern about his decision to abolish the quango.
The letter was signed by Steven Molen, president of production at the studio, Sky News revealed.
DreamWorks films shot in Britain include Sweeney Todd, which starred Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.
The move comes amid a growing row over the future of the quango, which oversees a budget of £60million and distributes lottery cash.
Top director Stephen Frears today accused the Government of jeopardising British film by abolishing the Council without explaining what will replace it.
Frears and fellow director Danny Boyle, backed by leading producers, claimed delicate negotiations to bring big-budget films to Britain were being damaged by the uncertainty.
Slumdog Millionaire director Boyle said: "If you want to build a great film industry, you've got to have continuity so people know where to go to develop their films. That's the worry. It's a period of great uncertainty and that's not healthy."
Iain Smith, producer of The Fifth Element, The A-Team and Cold Mountain, said the Government should have resolved the question before announcing the council's demise.
"In the last 20 years the competition for production in the world has really hotted up.
"The Australians and Canadians are just loving this. And the [American] studios are frankly astonished that the Film Council is being so arbitrarily removed. They're worried now about what is happening in Britain."
He claimed the abolition was a political, not a fiscal measure. "It's ideological," he said.
Frears, whose latest film Tamara Drewe is due out this autumn, added: "They'll have to set up some new system.
"That is what matters and that the hiatus is as short as possible. Indecisiveness really mucks people about."
A spokesman for Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: "People should not be alarmed. The Lottery grants and tax credits will continue."
