UK Culture Secretary In Hollywood

UK Culture Secretary Maria Miller visited Los Angeles this month as part of continuing efforts by Westminster to encourage the US film industry to invest in Britain.
Mrs Miller met with a number of senior executives from film and TV industry giants Paramount, Disney, Lucasfilm, Warner Bros and HBO during the week-long visit.
The purpose of the Culture Secretary's excursion was to explore different avenues of collaboration open to both the UK and US film industries.
She also listened to industry suggestions on ways in which filming conditions could be made even more attractive to American productions, on top of the existing tax reliefs for film, animation and TV ventures.
Mrs Miller's message was that the UK is "well and truly open for business".
Studio capacity in the UK has increased by approximately 50% in the past five years, according to the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS).
This is largely due to the new Warners Bros Leavesden studios, the Northern Ireland extension of Titanic studios in Belfast and two new stages at Pinewood.
Inward investment accounted for 80% of total UK production spend in 2011, with record levels of filming contributing £3.7bn to UK GDP and £1bn to Exchequer revenues.
The vast majority of film and TV inward investment still comes from the US.
Mrs Millers spoke to representatives from HBO regarding the recent extension of tax credits to other creative sectors. She was keen to acquire first-hand knowledge from HBO as to how the scheme is working at ground level.
One of the big success stories within the UK/HBO collaboration is fantasy epic Game Of Thrones, which is filmed in Belfast and across various locations in Northern Ireland.
The Culture Secretary was keen to emphasis that the success of the production model could be replicated in other areas of the UK outside London.
She also spoke to representatives from Lucasfilm, regarding the studio's recent experience of setting up in the UK and the announcement that it will film the new Star Wars film here.
US-produced films shot in the UK in 2013 that are currently in production include Walt Disney's Muppets Most Wanted and Warner Bros' Jupiter Ascending, starring Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum.
2014 will see further collaboration between the two industries, with the new Star Wars and Avengers films and the reboot of US spy drama 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland.
Maria Miller said: "It is fantastic that huge films are choosing the UK and we are working with the British Film Commission and industry to ensure we can facilitate all the productions which want to take advantage of our world-class crew, infrastructure and lucrative tax reliefs."
www.gov.uk/dcms
(IT/JP)