Stephen Wooley - Interview Transcript
The importance of promoting British film
STEPHEN WOOLEY: It's never easy with British films. I released a film many, many years ago called Absolute Beginners and somebody asked me on TV if I thought there was too much hype surrounding the movie and I said then, and I think it's the same now that as far as British film goes there can never be too much hype because the choices people have when they're going to the cinema are so wide. And there's almost an American blockbuster released every week. I include of course Harry Potter films in that bracket because they are big Warner Bros. blockbuster movies. But when you've got Toy Story III or the endless Spiderman sequels, the endless Batman sequels, the endless Leonardo DiCaprio films, these things are made for 150, 200, 300 million dollars, so our little paltry six is nothing. So we have to bang the drum for the British cinema and we have to make sure that we are on the front pages and not just bringing up the rear because it's savage at the box office. It's eleven or twelve movies released a week. And if you don't make yourself heard, if you don't push that extra few hundred yards, you'll be left behind and lost. And it's a ruthless business, people release films and if they don't work they're off. It's as tough as that.