UK Film Council Awarded £12M To Company That John Woodward Will Run

COMMENTS (13)

• so….”everyone is fuming.” is anybody gonna DO anything?

  Comment by skeptic — Tuesday, 12 October 2010 13:00 UK  Reply to this post

• No surprise there. And so the corruption, cronyism and nepotism continues, while most UK filmmakers suffer.

  Comment by Dave — Tuesday, 12 October 2010 13:24 UK  Reply to this post

• SO… of course, when I worked there pretty much all the money was given to people who had “ins”.. Why is there any surprise – look at the board of the UKFC almost all have benefitted from money from the UKFC at one point or another.

  Comment by of course — Tuesday, 12 October 2010 16:14 UK  Reply to this post

• As usual the Labour quangocrat moves easily to another excellent job. It’s good to see that the huge tax payer funded ‘investment’ to this firm is paying off for him at least….

  Comment by Hitch Cock — Tuesday, 12 October 2010 16:35 UK  Reply to this post

• Does not surprise me. Corrupt from beginning to end.

  Comment by LuLu — Tuesday, 12 October 2010 19:48 UK  Reply to this post

• Ride that gravy train, baby!

  Comment by Fan — Wednesday, 13 October 2010 01:45 UK  Reply to this post

• I’m assuming that someone at the DCMS + the Lottery, whose money he was doling out is looking in to this.

  Extraordinarily arrogant that this can be done with barely an eyebrow raised.

  Surely there was some kind of contract in place that would pre-empt something like this.

  But no, actually, thinking about it, given the general intellectual level of business affairs people at the UKFC – yes, you know who you are, you geniuses, you…..it’s not surprising.

  Oh well. At least we’ve finally got rid of them.

  Thankful for small mercies.

  Comment by Mark Long — Wednesday, 13 October 2010 08:14 UK  Reply to this post

• Er HELLO! The digital screen network in the UK is the largest in the world offering MUCH more chances for indie film distributors to get films in the screens (with a digital print being 1 tenth of a 35mm print) so regardless of whether Woodward did have a say – SO WHAT! quit complaining. At least they are trying to do something for the UK industry.

  Comment by Jason — Wednesday, 13 October 2010 15:31 UK  Reply to this post

  • Except, of course, the digital network doesn’t help indie films get screenings in any meaningful fashion.

    The reality of the situation is that almost all cinemas use their limited number of digital screens to allow them to show the standard blockbuster fayre, usually in 3D. Meanwhile indie films still don’t get a look in.

    Comment by Ben Mortimer — Thursday, 14 October 2010 10:34 UK  Reply to this post

  • Actually the digital screen network put digital projectors in only the largest cinemas where indie films had little chance of being screened. The result was that small films did not benefit but studios with big films did (although they still pay a projection fee to the cinema which reduces some of the digital saving).

    Comment by AS — Thursday, 14 October 2010 10:59 UK  Reply to this post

  • Yo Jason. I don’t think you quite get what’s going on with the digital initiatives. Distributors are going to be paying MORE for virtual print fees than a 35mm print cost now.

    Comment by skeptic — Thursday, 14 October 2010 12:48 UK  Reply to this post

• Remember Pathe Productions, DNA Films and The Film Consortium …

  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/1097783.stm

  Wednesday, 3 January, 2001, 07:54 GMT
  Lottery funds film failures

  Janice Beard 45 wpm was funded with National Lottery money
  Only one of the 11 films released and funded through National Lottery money has made a profit, according to latest figures.
  More than £13.5m in lottery money has been spent by three film companies to produce and distribute 11 films since the government entrusted them with nurturing the British film industry 1997.

  Pathe Productions, DNA Films and The Film Consortium have made 18 films in three years – 11 have been released – with only An Ideal Husband, made by Pathe, fully repaying its lottery investment.

  The three companies have been allocated £92m for film production over the duration of a six-year franchise.

  They have so far spent £37.23m on film development and production, which includes the £13.5m spent on the 11 released films.

  But the Film Council, set up last year to co-ordinate Britain’s film strategy and funding, says it is happy with the work the three companies are doing.

  Lottery film figures
  £92m available over six years
  £13.5m spent on 11 films released so far
  £37.23m spent on 18 feature films and development projects so far
  Seven films still await release
  The new film body became custodian of the franchises last year.

  It is also pursuing a separate strategy for film production in the UK, planning to inject a further £22m in the industry.

  A confidential mid-term report carried out by accountants has cleared the three franchise-holding companies to continue for the next three years.

  “We are happy with their work and that is why we passed them,” a spokesman for the Film Council told BBC News Online.

  A campaign to make the accountants’ report public has been launched by Alexander Walker, film critic of the Evening Standard.

  “Confidentiality was agreed between the Arts Council and the companies when the franchises were set up,” the Film Council spokesman added.

  John Woodward, chief executive officer of the Film Council, said on renewing the Film Consortium’s franchise: “The Film Consortium has recently been revitalised and is now backed by a focused, commercially-minded publicly quoted film company.

  Kate Winslet starred in Hideous Kinky which failed to ignite at the box office
  “The Film Council believes that the Film Consortium management is now poised to build a successful and profitable British film company.”

  Pathe Productions has made nine films in the last three years.

  Six have been released, with only An Ideal Husband, starring Minnie Driver and Cate Blanchett, making a profit at the UK box office.

  Pathe films which have failed to ignite the British box office include Ratcatcher, which was awarded £615,000 in lottery money and made £381,099 at the UK box office.

  A second was There is only one Jimmy Grimble, which received £1,650,000 from the lottery and earned £348,412 at the UK box office.

  A spokeswoman for Pathe Productions told BBC News Online that ancillary earnings – from distribution rights on cable, satellite, TV, and video – could see the films eventually repaying their lottery investment.

  “It was always our intention that the films would do that,” she told BBC News Online.

  Cinema release

  Ratcatcher has earned more than £60,000 since it was released in the United States.

  The Film Consortium has made five films in three years – Hideous Kinky, starring Kate Winslet, Janice Beard 45wpm, starring Patsy Kensit, and The Lost Son, Hold Back the Night and Fanny and Elvis, spending more than £5m in lottery money.

  It is thought that the films have so far earned less than half that amount at the UK box office.

  DNA Films has made three movies but not one has so far reached cinema screens.

  Beautiful Creatures, which was planned for release in 2000, is now expected to be screened next month.

  It has used almost £6m in lottery money to help finance the three films.

  Comment by Zuma — Thursday, 14 October 2010 22:42 UK  Reply to this post

• Get back on the point – the point is that Woodward is corrupt and has his snout in the trough.

  Now he very swiftly worked out his exit strategy and sinecure.

  No good can come from this evil suburbanite – and his comeuppance is not far away.

  Talentless, cultureless, hopeless.

  A tale of great ordinariness.

  Comment by maryscott — Saturday, 16 October 2010 15:14 UK  Reply to this post