‘Peaky Blinders’ creator Steven Knight tells parliament US streamers should finance UK film industry
Steven Knight, the creator of Peaky Blinders, has told a UK parliament committee that US streamers should help to financially support the UK film industry.
Knight is also set to write the next James Bond film on top of an upcoming two-series sequel to Peaky Blinders via the BBC and Netflix.
However, he was appearing before the UK parliament’s Culture, Media, and Sports Committee on June 16th, where he discussed the idea of a ‘streamer levy’, which has recently been gaining traction in the UK film industry.
Although Knight did not refer to the idea by this title, according to Deadline, he said: “There might be an argument to be made to already empathetic streamers that this country is so great for you because of the training that’s done.”
The concept would be that streamers such as Netflix, which are primarily based in America, could help to invest in the UK industry given that they frequently use the country’s resources as a filming base.
To this end, Knight added: “What about the idea that there is something set up — that could even have the streamer’s name in it — which is basically helping financially to maintain what we’ve already got and make it better. That would be a sensible proposition, and I think the streamers are sensible people.”
Despite this, the writer seemed more reserved when it came to the title of ‘streamer levy’ as he noted, “You’d have to be organised in such a way that it’s acceptable to everybody.”
Knight elaborated, “The word ‘levy’ suggests compulsion. Isn’t there a way that we can make it apparent that this is a good idea for everybody concerned?”
The idea of a streamer levy was first introduced by director Peter Kosminsky last year and endorsed by the Culture, Media, and Sport Committee, who recommended a five per cent levy to the government and said that it should be made UK law if the industry itself did not introduce the proposal within a year.
However, the government has so far not been entirely forthcoming towards the idea, and outright rejected it as a model for increasing funding to the BBC.
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