Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell is in LA lobbying Hollywood executives to encourage  major studios to shoot more films in the UK.  Jowell is meeting executives from Warner Brothers, Disney and Universal.

The UK government this year unveiled a new tax relief system aimed at making Britain a more cost-effective location for films.

Jowell said the UK was now "one of the most tax sympathetic" places to make films, with the best technical support and "fantastic locations. I am unashamedly here to argue for the UK," she said during her whistle-stop tour.

 

Film Investment Lawyer Adam P Davies explains The New Tax Relief System for British films (requires registration - which is free!)

 

The European Commission will disburse 6.5 million euros to finance film production and broadcasting programmes in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, the commission has announced. The Commission aims, through this funding, to contribute to the development and structuring of film and broadcasting industries in ACP countries, according to a statement issued this week in Brussels.

 

An all-digital independent film production and distribution company, Slingshot,  has been formed to offer British film-makers an environment in which to make innovative and critically acclaimed pictures that might not otherwise make it to the big screen.

 

China will draw five percent from its annual film box office revenue to supplement a fund designed to support its national cinema, according to a new China government statute. China's box office was worth $250m in2005.

 

Bollywood film group Eros International, has had to slash its flotation price as it seeks entry to the market this week. The plan was for the company to raise more than $100m (£55m) at an initial public offer this week that would have given a market capitalisation valued at up to $500m.

 

Here's the pitch: a Bay Area motel room at night. A young couple, Tao and Bella. A phone call. An urgent message. They have to get to Los Angeles to get Tao's little brother, Leo, out of custody and into a drug rehab unit before 8 o'clock the next evening - or Leo gets sent to prison for two years. It's a quest. It's an odyssey through the streets and hidden worlds of Los Angeles. It's about brothers, drugs and love. It's called The Fix.

 

Adlabs Films Ltd, controlled by Anil Ambani, is entering into Hollywood movies through AshoK Amritraj's Hyde Park Entertainment Group. The signing of the co-production and  film financing deal with Hyde Park Entertainment Group comes after Adlabs Films set up UK and US offices. Bollywood movie distribution will still be the company's primary business activity, but the overseas operations will also explore opportunities in film production and post-production.

Future Films Australia has launched a new film investment fund designed  to appeal to savvy investors who want to invest in film through a structured vehicle instead of as a one-off speculative investment.