Written by on Jan 12, 2012. Posted in On Location

Ken Loach criticises British PM’s call for UK to focus on bigger films

David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, has called on the UK filming industry to focus its attention on attracting bigger films that target broader audiences. The announcement has proven controversial with filmmaker Ken Loach who is concerned Cameron hasn’t grasped the reality of the industry.

The Prime Minister made the comments ahead of a visit to Pinewood Studios: “We should aim even higher, building on the incredible success of recent years. Our role, and that of the BFI, should be to support the sector in becoming even more dynamic and entrepreneurial, helping UK producers to make commercially successful pictures that rival the quality and impact of the best international productions.”

What you have to do is fund a lot of different, varied projects and then some will be successful, some will be original, some will be creative, and you will get a very vibrant industry.

Ken Loach

Loach has attacked the notion that bigger-budget productions are the way forward in the UK. He told the BBC: “This is a travesty. If everybody knew what would be successful before it was made, there would be no problem. What you have to do is fund a lot of different, varied projects and then some will be successful, some will be original, some will be creative, and you will get a very vibrant industry.”

While the UK is consistently attracting large studio productions from the US, smaller films such as The King’s Speech and Slumdog Millionaire have defied expectations by being massively successful on low budgets.

(Ken Loach image copyright: Joss Barratt)