Can novelists with millions of readers attract viewers when they switch to television? Sky Arts is banking that they can in a venture to broadcast six brand-new plays live, in a bid to bring the excitement of theatre to the small screen. It was how drama used to be done, but not recently and therefore shows some nerve.

Ken Loach insists he is not as serious as you might think from the catalogue of films on hard-hitting social issues made over a career of more than 40 years. Indeed, Paul Laverty, the writer of several of them including the latest, Looking for Eric, describes him as "mischievous". But it is undoubtedly the case that the acclaim that Loach receives around the world has largely eluded him in his native Britain, where a political consciousness is regarded with no small degree of suspicion and the accusation of worthiness is an insult.

LONDON is aiming to be the world’s greenest film city, in a new initiative being unveiled in Cannes. Mayor Boris Johnson has joined forces with the Film London film agency to produce a blueprint, Green Screen, for reducing the capital’s movie carbon footprint by 60 per cent. 

Mr Johnson has despatched representatives to the south of France to announce the plan. In a statement, he says it is not about compromising the quality of productions or hampering creative endeavour – but that it is possible to make London the world’s greenest place in which to film. "Green Screen contains really practical information on how to reduce emissions and what's more, save money in the process through reduced energy bills. The film industry can play an important role in creating the new low-carbon economy. In a sector known for being imaginative and forward looking, this is another area that studios, producers and creative talent can take the lead."

It is the first time that the carbon footprint of the industry has been quantified. The screen production industry in London alone produces around 125,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year - equivalent to approximately 24,000 London homes. This excludes distribution and exhibition of films and programmes, or production office travel.

Adrian Wootton, chief executive of Film London, says the figures meant it was hugely important the industry plays its part to reduce carbon emissions. "Making London the greenest place to film also has a commercial advantage as many leading directors and actors make decisions about the projects they work on based on their impact to the environment."

Louise Jury in Cannes

It is in some ways astonishing how well represented the Brits are in Cannes,
In addition to the films in competition, British talent appears in legions of films being bought and sold.
Lily Cole is to star in a vampire film, The Moth Diaries, from the people behind American Psycho.
Carey  Mulligan, rising star, is to appear n a new adaptation of Graham Greene’s classic novel Brighton Rock alongside Sam Riley, who played the musician Ian Curtis in Control..
.Michael Sheen is breaking out of the biopic mould to take part in a coming of age drama by Richard Ayoade, star of The It Crowd, and ultra cool.
And Ralph Fiennes is to star and direct himself in a film version of Shakespeare’s bloody drama, Coriolanus  with Vanessa Redgrave among others.

Sally Hawkins is to star as the feisty ringleader of women who brought the Ford factory at Dagenham to its knees in a strike over equal pay.
The Happy-Go-Lucky star is heading a cast including Bob Hoskins, Rosamund Pike, Miranda Richardson, Jaime Winstone and Andrea Riseborough in We Want Sex, it was announced here in Cannes today.
In a very British way, the project was sparked when Stephen Woolley, producer of hits including The Crying Game, heard the story of the woman on Radio 4’s Reunion.
The women downed tools at Dagenham in 1968 when they their arduous machinist work creating the car seat covers and headrests was classified as “unskilled” – leaving them on less pay than the men who swept the factory floor, Woolley said.
The title comes from an incident in a London demonstration when their banner demanding sexual equality initially failed to unfurl, conveying only a partial – and misleading – message.
Hawkins, who plays a composite of the women called Rita, told me: “It’s a fight we’re still fighting and it’s still relevant.”
The ever-smiling star with strong political passions pointed out how the female stars in Friends discovered they were paid less than their male counterparts.
Its director Nigel Cole, who last tackled feisty women in Calendar Girls, said: “It’s a wonderful mix of comedy and drama but it’s also a really important story that I feel people should know about.
“The idea of little Sally Hawkins taking on the might of Ford U.S. and bringing them to their knees was irresistible.”
For Woolley, the film is in the same line of British films including Educating Rita, Brassed Off, The Full Monty and Billy Elliot – all battles of a sort. “We have a great history of making films like this,” he said.
Dagenham was eventually forced to close for several weeks and Haleswood in Liverpool followed and the women only returned to work after the intervention of Labour minister Barbara Castle in a deal that eventually led to the 1970 Equal Pay Act.
Filming starts in locations including east London at the end of next  It's sure to bring back memories for many.
ends

There’s a mild lament in Cannes about the dearth of parties and the prices at the bars.

But even if not to the excess of some years, good times are to be had. Because there are always new people with money entering the film business. And, if you have a product to sell, Cannes has the glamour to do it.

So in the first category, Ravi Wethasinghe, partner of Anglo-Sri Lankan business Latec International, threw open his personal yacht to host the signing of a six-country deal to produce a live action version of a Japanese anime series “Bubblegum Crisis”.

Mr Wethasinghe, who lives in Singpore and Ilford, Essex, normally trades in the likes of rice and concrete but got to know one of the parties in this first Singapore-Japan-Australia-Canada-China-UK co-production deal and decided a $5 million stake in the $30 million venture looked a pretty good idea – and more fun than concrete, quite frankly.

With the giant Asian market first target and merchandising and games already in planning, it has a logic.

In the second category, Belvedere vodka decided to bank on a combination of booze and a big-name pop star to add allure to its brand.

So at 2am this morning I watched an astonishingly sexy Debbie Harry French Kissing in the USA in an overheated party alongside Abbie Cornish – star of the new Keats film Bright Star – and Ryan Philippe.

In the manner of Cannes, Ms Harry’s appearance was rumoured to be attracting all manner of stars, though I didn’t actually spot Quentin Tarantino.

It was his loss if he didn’t make it. She sang only a few numbers but at 63, she looked a million times better than the last time I had seen her at the Colston Hall in Bristol around 20 years ago.

And she looked as though she were having a good time, professionally thanked all the money-men and looked suitably amused by the scantily clad young things obviously brought in to give added sex appeal.

They were redundant. Deborah Harry is still the epitome of cool.

ends

The mood on the Croisette is muted. The view is all the major sales agents, distributors and producers are here. But businesses have dispatched fewer staff for the duration.

When the Cannes Film Festival has its red carpet gala opening night, the guests will be wearing black tie - and 3D glasses. But the press got an early glimpse this morning in our civvies.

For anyone yet to experience the 3D revolution – and I have watched only sequences, not an entire movie until now – it is an initially curious sensation.

There are practical issues. Spectacle wearers will find balancing the cumbersome 3D glasses on top quite tricky. And the look may not be suitable to convince a first date of your devastating attractiveness.

But the added depth on screen is striking, even if you quickly grow accustomed to the effect. Indeed, you can see why John Lasseter, the creative head of the Disney and Pixar animation studios, is now saying all their work will be produced in 3D in future.

While 3D once seemed a movie nerd’s sideshow, it is quite easy to imagine how conventional 2D with which we have lived for so long will seem quaintly inadequate within not so many years.

And Up? I liked it. An old man and a chubby Oriental boy – a winning combination

 Film4 is bringing to the Cannes marketplace a whole slate of new movies in varying stages of production just as it is waiting to hear its financial fate. If Channel 4 is forced to make cuts in the coming weeks, its film arm will share in them despite an annual budget of just £10 million. Andy Duncan, its chief executive, has made that quite clear.

It would be a bitter disappointment for Tessa Ross and her team, just when they have wowed the world with Slumdog Millionaire, In Bruges, Happy-Go-Lucky and Hunger to see their room for manoeuvre restricted in the straitened times the movie industry is sharing with everyone else.

Yet one old decision could prove their saviour. It was Film4 that quickly and cleverly snapped up the rights to Alice Sebold’s hit novel, The Lovely Bones, nine years ago. And when the talented film-maker Lynne Ramsay failed to make progress on a project that requires rendering heaven on screen, Peter Jackson stepped in to express his interest. He delivered the first scenes to his backers – which are now DreamWorks with Film4 - last week, giving a glimpse of how the director is tackling the story of a schoolgirl murder. Now everyone connected with it must be hoping it will prove as successful as his Lord of the Rings trilogy. Because a blockbuster hit on a global scale could be just what the doctor ordered for Film4 finances.

In the meantime, their hopes of short-term glory are pinned on Eric Cantona and Ken Loach, with Looking for Eric, in competition here in Cannes.

The nervous word on the film set is that this will be the credit crunch Cannes. The world’s most film festival will open this Wednesday with attendees said to be tightening their belts in a manner the Croisette can scarcely imagine.

Vanity Fair, hosts to one of last year’s glitziest parties, is declining to entertain this year. The hairdressing budget for the big-name guests has been cut so that just 15 – shock, horror – stylists will tend to the stars, against a reported 20 in 2008. Yachts, the preferred exclusive party venue of choice, and champagne are expected to be less than ubiquitous.

And, crucially, everyone is waiting with bated breath to see what happens in the market.

For while above ground, all eyes will be on Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz and the other stars as they shimmy up the red carpet for prestigious premieres in competition for the Palme d’Or, in the depths of the festival Palais the serious business of selling films (or pre-selling them in order to get them made) is what the industry cares about.

For funding is not easy to find at present. At Film4’s pre-Cannes party last week, producers shared notes on the perils of extracting cash even from those territories – such as India and Dubai – ostensibly keen to get in on the action.

British film-making, high on an epic year with Oscar and Golden Globe success for Slumdog Millionaire, The Reader and the rest, can at least hold its head high at this year’s festival with new films from veteran Ken Loach (Looking for Eric) and rising star Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank) both in competition.

A third contender – New Zealander Jane Campion’s Bright Star, the story of the poet Keats starring Ben Whishaw - can reasonably be claimed as home-grown, given its cast, locations and subject matter.

But with numerous scripts lacking the budget to go into production, the question film-makers want answered is how they will be able to keep the flag flying. Can British resourcefulness find a way?