'High Noon' For Eastwood Over Film Council

There's a 'shoot-out' looming over the future of the UK body that funds movie making.

The iconic tough-guy star Clint Eastwood is squaring up to Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt whose stinging rebuke over the US actor and director's support for the soon-to-be axed UK Film Council looks increasingly like a high-noon scenario.

The Hollywood star is the latest celebrity to speak out against the decision to axe the quango, which funds and promotes British films.

He has written to Chancellor George Osborne saying the Council had provided crucial support when he made his latest film, Hereafter.

"I cannot stress how important the Film Council is to me," added the Dirty Harry actor.

But, in mid August, the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt was coming dangerously close to fulfilling Eastwood's infamous "Make My Day" line from the movie Dirty Harry with an attack on the US film industry when he slammed UK filmmakers for selling movie rights too early to US studios.

"The result is that when we have a hit, the profits do not go back to the film-maker where they could be used to finance the next production," the Cabinet Minister raged.

Despite top directors such as Clint Eastwood and actors from Bill Nighy to Emily Blunt and Liam Neeson condemning the plan to scrap the Film Council, he insists his move would "focus resources on supporting frontline film-makers rather than expensive bureaucracy".

He also claimed that it was unacceptable to have "no fewer than eight" of its top executives earning more than £100,000.

However, this may have proved to be an 'own goal' as two of those high-paid senior managers had left their jobs before he lambasted the organisation.

Shadow Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw said: "Hunt's focus on salaries is a smokescreen for his damaging and chaotic decision to axe the Film Council, which has been rightly condemned across the industry."

The six remaining executives on more than £100,000 are: John Woodward, the Chief Executive Officer, Alan Bushell, Chief Operating Officer, Peter Buckingham, Head of Distribution, Will Evans, Head of Business Affairs - a lawyer who manages film contracts - and Colin Brown, the British Film Commissioner.

Brown is the Film Council's direct line to US studios that bring big-budget films such as The Dark Knight to Britain.

Also one of those included is believed to be Tanya Seghatchian, who runs the Film Fund, which invests £15 million a year into new British movies.

It also emerged that Ms Seghatchian, previously head of the Film Council's development fund, took a 25% salary cut to take up her new post, which was created in May.

Her previous career included a pivotal role developing and producing the Harry Potter films.

(BMcC/KMcA)