Courtesy Isle of Man Film Commission

Manx-made movies

Me Without You (2001) Tale of friendship

The Martins (2001) British comedy

Thomas and the Magic Railroad Based on the popular children’s book

Waking Ned Devine (1998) Story of a lottery swindle in a tiny Irish village

Relative Values (1997) A Hollywood actress comes to her fiancé’s estate

The Brylcreem Boys (1995) Love story during WW II, based on actual events

When Don Westacott retired to the Isle of Man, he soon realized that he could not simply switch off and live the good life of a retiree. So he placed an ad in the local paper that read: “Retired businessman with capital is looking for ideas.” Among the many responses, the idea of starting a film studio appealed to him the most.

Westacott has no background in the movie industry, yet he is watching over the finishing touches of the construction of a studio complex that could produce any movie Hollywood could, complete with adjacent animation studio.

But Westacott did not start the Isle’s film industry. It was Finance Minister Allan Bell who, when he still presided over the Tourism Ministry, devised a scheme to bring productions to the country. The film industry here started because other countries were not particularly helpful, says Bell. English film makers had to go to far-flung corners of the world to shoot their movies. First, Ireland jumped in, but then the Irish government started to impose minimum-local-hire rules and made life harder for the producers. Bell simply made it easy for foreign crews to come and shoot, and even receive financial support.

“The Isle of Man is very small, but it is a microcosm of Great Britain,” says Bell. “We can replicate pretty much all English scenery.” So his ministry put in place the incentives to bring the film industry to the island. These incentives proved critical. “Those who make a movie for £300,000 ($450,000), are always short the last £100,000,” says Michael Gates of the Treasury Department’s International Services Division.

The success has been substantial. To date, 37 films have been shot on the island, bringing economic activity while putting the country on the map. The Film Commission negotiates mention of the Isle’s name in every production. Waking Ned Divine was an international hit, and delivered the Isle’s name to the screens of millions of people.

The industry also fills hotel beds – 100,000 nights since the inception of the project in 1995 – and provides for some excitement, says Hilary Dugdale, the development manager at the Film Commission. She goes on star-spotting missions in bars and restaurants and hopes to get some of her heroes to the Isle for a project.

All the commission requires to provide incentives for a production is that a certain percentage of the shooting take place on the island and that a defined part of the budget be spent here. This year, the government, happy with the results from early productions that were supported by grants, has changed the system. It is providing a total of £36 million ($54 million) for a revolving fund. Films can obtain support from that fund but now have to repay it from box office revenue. Thus, in the future, the taxpayers will no longer be asked to foot the bill.

That system puts even more pressure on the Film Commission to assure the films it supports are commercially viable. Fortunately, there is a long list of applicants to pick from. “For every film we support we turn away six to eight,” says Dugdale. But she admits that the return on investment is highly unpredictable. Some of the movies with great commercial expectations “did not do as well as they deserved,” she explains with the pride of a mother in her children. But then, there are always those stepchildren that are accepted on a whim, and perform beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. How much would the Film Commission want to wake Ned yet again!