Keep cinema screens open for UK-made films only – Robert Carlyle

Published on Monday 9 November 2009 21:51

SCOTS Hollywood star Robert Carlyle has called on UK cinemas to help the British film industry by reserving screens for home-made productions.

Speaking after picking up a Bafta Scotland award for his role in The Unloved, Carlyle claimed some British films were being smothered by Hollywood releases. He said: "I look at these multiplex cinemas, 15 and 20 screens. They are basically wall-to-wall American product. You will be lucky if you find any British subjects in there at all.

"I don't see why there's anything wrong in giving our industry a wee lift-up, a wee leg-up, and reserving one of these screens, just one of these screens, for a British product.

"We make stuff and we bury it. You don't get to see it and what's the point in that? Reserve something so people will then vote with their feet."

Carlyle was speaking at the Glasgow Science Centre after beating Doctor Who actor David Tennant to the best acting performance in television for a male in the Bafta Scotland awards.

Claire Mundell, producer of Crying with Laughter, which won best feature film, said of the actor's comments: "I completely agree with him. The film industry is not a level playing field, and we are never going to be a position where we can redress the balance between British or Scottish indie cinema and the American studios.

"We don't lack talent; what we lack is a platform to show the audience what we can do. If we want to have a proper Scottish film industry, we have to have the confidence to support our own product."

Ms Mundell suggested the French quota system, which requires cinemas to show a prescribed number of films made by indigenous film-makers, would be a template worth examining. She added: "I think a move like the one suggested would be one very tangible, very practical step, allowing our films to get to the audience, then allowing them to decide what they want to watch."

Annette Bradford of the Cinema Exhibitors' Association, which represents British cinema operators, said that efforts were being made to show local films, but that there were physical limitations to what was possible.

"A lot of our members do try, where possible, to include local, British or 'specialist' films within their programmes, particularly if they think there's a market for it." she said.

"Unfortunately, a lot of these films tend to be released on very small print runs, so copies are in no way as numerous as the larger, Hollywood-released movies."

But Carlyle, best known for Trainspotting and The Full Monty , also said that he was abandoning making films in the UK for now, as it was too difficult to work on projects that he liked.