FRANCE: ISLE OF MAN FILM COMMISSION PROMOTES THE ISLAND AS A FILM LOCATION AT THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

Record ID: 392801

  • Title: FRANCE: ISLE OF MAN FILM COMMISSION PROMOTES THE ISLAND AS A FILM LOCATION AT THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
  • Date: 15th May 2002
  • Summary: CANNES, FRANCE, MAY 2002 (REUTERS) SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) STEVE CHRISTIAN, ISLE OF MAN FILM SAYING: 'The benefits are very wide in so far as one, we take a recoupment position again we are probably the only government in the world investing in film in a way that is not tax driven or is not subsidy driven. What we do is put direct investment into the budget and we expec
  • Embargoed: 30th May 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CANNES, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Business,Entertainment,Travel / Tourism
  • Reuters ID: LVA9DIJDKMMRGPU95TZ52TO8HW42
  • Story Text: The Isle of Man measures a little over 20 kilometres at its longest point and is around 10 kilometres wide. It is windswept and often overcast - and has a population of just over 73,000. Nevertheless it is expected to challenge mainland Britain in the race to attract big budget films.
    According to the Film Commission's Steve Christian the effort to attract film business was taken by the Island's leaders - it is a self-governing dependency of Britain - to diversify an economy that has been reliant on offshore banking, manufacturing and tourism.
    "The Film Commission was established in 1995 and its real primary objective was to diversify the economy of the Isle of Man. I mean on the Isle of Man we have a situation where we have full employment, double digit growth so a very nice position to be in as regards an economy. We're very reliant on the finance sector so the establishment of the Film Commission back in '95 was really to take a first step into diversification for the economy really."
    He says that the government remains committed to developing the industry and has recently allocated more funds to the Film Commission:
    "In the last seven years we've invested around about £35 million pounds in something like 39 projects. For the the next couple of years we're looking to go to bigger budget films, bigger budget more commercial films and we've announced in our recent budget in the Isle Of Man that a media development fund is being set up and that fund is likely to generate something in the order of 125 million pounds worth of Isle of Man investment into the industry over the next six year to seven years. That equates to around about half a billion pounds worth of films to be shot on the Isle of Man which we think is quite a big step forward."
    If the prediction come true the Isle of Man, best known for kipper-smoking and cats without tails, is set to become one of the most important players in the British film industry, boosting its tourist trade by millions and transforming the Manx economy.
    Traffic wardens have reinvented themselves as location scouts, sailors are becoming production runners, kennel-owners are launching careers as snake handlers. Pensioners are swapping the gardening for regular work as film extras, playing corpses and clergy, or passengers aboard Thomas the Tank Engine.
    According to Christian the additional cash will increasingly form an important part of the Isle's economy: 'The benefits are very wide in so far as one, we take a recoupment position - again we are probably the only government in the world investing in film in a way that is not tax driven or is not subsidy driven. What we do is put direct investment into the budget and we expect to get that investment back. So when the film is out there selling we're getting a slice of that money back for the Isle of Man. But in addition and much more importantly it generates a massive amount of local spend into the local economy and so our hotels, they now have a winter and autumn trade from film. Our taxi drivers have an autumn and a winter trade , we sell more meat, we sell more milk, we sell more beer but we don't have to build the prisons, the hospitals and the roads to cope with the demand so it's a great economic model and it pays for itself a number of times over with the exchequer benefit that's generated"
    The island offers filmmakers unique tax breaks and a 25% investment in films shot there and now plans to invest in script development and distribution rights as well.
    Another attraction for filmmakers - it opened recently - is the first fully soundproofed studio - a £1.7 million facility with almost four thousand square metres of stages.
    Los Angeles based film producer Peter Samuelson is enthusiastic about what the the Isle of Man can offer filmmakers. He says he's had a long and fruitful relationship with the Film Commission, which he describes as thoroughly professional. He was involved, with the Film Commission, in producing the 'The Gathering' a supernatural thriller starring Christina Ricci is due to be released later this year.
    "The Isle of Man is a 'can do' place it is terrific for for example Christina Ricci had a great time there because they're not phased by celebrity - they left her alone - and it is a very film friendly environment for those reason. And of course they've got a great array of locations. There's now a proper sound stage so you can now film your interiors there as well -so it's a wonderful thing and we've got some close working relationships there."
    Among other movies that used the Isle of Man have been 'Gabriel and Me' - a comic fantasy starring Billy Connolly as the Angel Gabriel; Thomas and the Magic Railroad - a film adaptation of Thomas the Tank Engine children's books, starring Peter Fonda and Alec Baldwin; Waking Ned - a comedy about a lottery swindle, starring Ian Bannen and James Nesbit and set in a sleepy village on the Irish coast and 'The Tichborne Claimant' a period piece starring Sir John Gielgud and Stephen Fry and set in 19th-century Hampshire and the Australian outback -ENDS-
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