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Moves by the Hollywood industry to tentatively look into legal downloading of movies takes a step forward as major UK rental company LoveFilm releases 500 title for download direct to customers computers.

Most people in the UK film industry seem keen to look forward to summer 2006 and quickly forget the depressing stats for last year. With production down almost a third to £559m, as reported on Screen Daily, after a high of £1.16billion in 2003, things are looking up once again as producers regain confidence in the UK finance system after an uncertain period surrounding tax incentives. A number of high profile productions look set to bolster freelance crews and cast including a trilogy based on Philip Pulman’s His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass, a £20m Beatrix Potter bio-pic starring Reece Witherspoon and Tim Burton’s new Ripley’s Believe it or Not – all of which are set to shoot in the UK this year. Despite an increasing fondness for lower budget character films such as Brokeback Mountain, the film industry still worryingly depends on its major ‘tent poles’ in summer and Christmas, with 2005 only just escaping disaster in the box office with the help of Star Wars III, Narnia and Harry Potter.