A true story
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/entertainment/film_and_tv/s/1017888_tates_iron_curtain_call
Apart from the important difference that the couple were from Lancashire rather than Yorkshire, it is a true story.
slightly dumbed down and dramatized after i guess.
hope no public finance went into this one.
it got upwards of £1mil from the idiots at the UK film council who distrubute funds provided to it by the national lottery. i.e. public funds.
This film made a horrific total of £32,000 in it's entire box office run in the UK. it was never released anywhere else, for good reasons (the film is *beep* In essence what this means is that if the UKFC had just taken that £1mil in public money and bought lottery tickets with it they stood a far better chance of making much more money than investing it in this crap!
Unfortunately the UKFC answers to no-one and has no sort of performance standard to meet so they can basically churn out turkey after turkey with impunity. If you dont believe me search 'Grown Your Own'. It got £1.75mil and made £185,000. there are so many more as well.......
that happens in canada a lot too, there are individual province grants for films and federal grants as well, fortunately here tho quite a few good films get made with these grants
shareMaking films set in Britain generally isnt profitable without a US star. These films wouldnt get made without state assistance but neither would the Royal Opera House or nearly all museums survive without govt. cash.
How much would the TV rights raise? Not expecting much from merchandising or tie ins with a cereal or burger chains. Doubt if the DVD will fly off the shelf either...
Have the UKFC backed any winners?
Bend It Like Beckham, Match Point and This Is England are UKFC backed films that have at least made reasonable profits. Unfortunately, in a sea of well over 1000 films they have backed in the past 8 years these random successes are almost invisible against the near blanket failure they are swallowed up by.
Put it this way, it's more or less impossible to find out any definitive figures for investment verusus return for the projects they invest in, even though it is our (the public's) money they are using. And it's not surprising these figures are not available to the public. in the 8 years of investing the deficit would be so horrific there would be a national outcry, if the public were actually aware that it is their money being used to invest in these films that they continually and consistently do not want to see.
I think it's a mistake also to assume that a British film has to be set in the UK.
i'd far prefer the film council to back little gems like this, even if they don't turn out to be that profitable, than the filth that is donkey punch x
shareBritish films dont have to be set in the UK, but they will deal with British subject matter and use UK actors. The money from the lottery goes on many cultural projects, it would be a mistake to think that they all could turn a profit.
shareThis film was released in New Zealand in August 2008 and received a positive review.
Personally I enjoyed it and thought it an adequate entry into British cinema. If films like this weren't made at all there would be plenty bemoaning the dearth of British cinema. The other argument relating to it's lack of box office profit is meaningless: many (if not most) non-Hollywood films fail be commercially successful initially.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the negativity arises from the poor reception Catherine Tate gets in the UK. This is something I fail to understand as I regard her performance in this and other roles to have greater depth than many "serious" actors (incidentally, she began her career as a serious actor) and her role here was the key performance that made this film work for me.
Of course it's not a serious exposition of life behind the curtain and there are shades of the "Carry On" formula here but then it's a comedy telling a story with it's tongue placed firmly in its cheek. It never pretended to be any different. I'd suggest people remember this before complaining that it fails to work as a piece of high-brow art or cinéma vérité...