When you're doing a big movie that's studio based, spending a lot of money on building sets, the first thing you do is a budget for shooting here, as tight as possible. Then you have to do an exercise in your head about taking it to Prague or somewhere in eastern Europe, or Canada, or America. On a $50m movie the difference can be as much as $6m-$9m.

When we were independents we were very wary about the studios. But what we realized through our experience with Polygram is that being part of a US studio structure is essential if you want to play the long game in the movie business. Six studios control movie distribution worldwide. The various supply engines, like talent agencies and marketing people, understand the studios and everyone who is playing seriously in the film business will be part of a studio structure.

"If you make one movie at a time the problem is it's boom-bust, stop-go. In the year [2004], you do Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) you kind of know that film is going to do all right, so you can take a bigger risk at the other end, which was Shaun of the Dead (2004). Which turned out all right, thank God, because we also did Thunderbirds (2004) which we thought was going to do all right, but didn't work out, and the other two supported it".

Quality is everything. The day we green-light a movie, that's the day the development process starts for us. Every word of that script's got to be checked ... too often I think what happens in Britain is the day they green-light a script is the day they say, that's finished.