Award-winning producer Paul Webster, the protagonist of an exclusive meeting as part of X Rays on UK, an initiative carried out in collaboration with the British Film Institute (BFI), the British Council and the British Embassy in Rome.
The X Rays on UK cycle aims to focus on the British film industry, bringing to light the peculiarities not only of the market, but also of successful business models and case histories. In such a scenario, there is the conversation with Paul Webster, a famous film producer, who said on the American industry: “Now in Hollywood you have more chances if you have famous actors rather than a strong and interesting story to tell”.
“The format of the storytelling – explains Webster – and the meaning of the distribution is changing, you have to stick to the original idea”. Then the comparison with the past: “In the last century, when Fellini, for example, made a film, it aroused great curiosity. Today this is no longer the case even with great directors”.
Paul Webster is one of the leading British film producers of his generation. His career began in 1975 at the Gate Cinema Film Library in London. His breakthrough as a producer took place in the 1980s: the first film produced, Dream Demon, was followed by a five-year collaboration with Working Title Films. In 1990 he moved to the USA to produce films of international scope. In America he supervised successful productions such as Shakespeare in Love and Will Hunting and with FilmFour Ltd in 5 years, he collected 6 Oscar nominations. 2004 was a productive year: he financed Joe Wright’s Pride and Prejudice, which won four Oscar nominations and founded Kudos Pictures. Since 2010, he has funded a number of successful films, according both to the critics and the box office, including Anna Karenina with Keira Knightley, Locke with Tom Hardy and Francis Lee‘s God’s Own Country.
