Position Wanted: The Next Spielberg?
01/12/2002 . Source: Jessica Martin 
The race is on across the UK for a new breed of science fiction films. The British Film Council's Development Fund has created New Steps Beyond, a film partnership, to develop three new science fiction feature movies. New Steps Beyond is an new British Film Council intiative intended to give budding film writers the opportunity to push the boundaries of the SF genre. Science fiction is a genre that can accommodate many other genres such as comedy, horror, thriller, romance, westerns, in fact almost anything as long as it is extraordinary. Some of the inspirations cited by New Step's backers include films such as Dark Star, Cube and Hardware. Interestingly, all these films combined non-Hollywood budgets, with compensations in the imagination department and a certain novelty of movie concept. A chap called Gub Neal, founder of Box Film (an independent TV production company), approached the Film Council with the idea behind New Steps Beyond, having been struck by the absence of British genre films, and specifically science fiction. The Film Council agreed that the under-developed UK SF genre offered a creative and commercial opportunity, and voila ... 
It could be you?
This new scheme was launched at the Delfina Gallery in London to a very select invited audience of writers. Guest speaker Michael Radford (1984, and Il Postino) met with writers to discuss re-inventing the genre and provoke new thinking about science fiction, as well as viewing extracts from films that have inspired the scheme. Paul Trijbits, Head of the New Cinema Fund told the 'Nest, "The Film Council wanted to encourage the development of new talent, and creative and technological innovation in the UK. This venture is another step towards building a stronger UK film industry. We're not looking for a future we have already seen, but a completely new vision, one which explores the outer limits of our current imaginations." "This is a very exciting scheme for Box Film to be part of," Gub Neal, the founder of Box Film added. "We relish the opportunity to encourage new talent to tackle the sci-fi genre, particularly at a time when British filmmakers should be provoked into thinking more about genre storytelling. With science fiction there is a fantastically exciting range of possibilities to be explored - we hope that this scheme will help demonstrate just how varied those possibilities are."
New Steps Beyond falls under the New Cinema Fund, which has £15 million to invest over three years in movies that illustrate unique ideas and innovative approaches, as well as encouraging digital technology in the production, distribution and exhibition of films. The films will be made for around $1 million each so there won't be room in the budget for blowing up space stations, creating gigantic off-world colonies or elaborate chase scenes with slavering aliens. What Gub Neal is looking for is original ideas conveyed through good writing. They want predictions for the future and writers to shed new light on the way audiences see it . They are not looking for any future that has already seen, but a completely new vision. Neal explained this initiative is to give writers the freedom to expand the boundaries of what is considered science fiction - to shoehorn any other genre into the existing mould - be it teen comedy, romance, adventure, war, mystery, in fact almost anything. To their discredit, all applicants must be either published, have had one screen credit for a feature film, short film, or television, or a theatrical writing credit ... which is not exactly the way to discover fresh talent, although it will cut down their slush pile. But still, anything which attempts to add drag SF away from the Hollywood Heroin of CGI-fuelled eye candy and actually bring in a decent level of script is to be welcomed. Let the cameras roll.
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