Britishproducer Jeremy Thomas, who picks up the Locarno Film Festival's prestigiousRaimondo Rezzonico award today, has revealed further details of what looks setto be his second film as a director.

The Director's Cut is an adaptation of NicholasRoyle's novel. Royle has already written a draft of the screenplay and Thomashopes to shoot next year. The story, set in London in the 1980s, is about fourwould-be filmmakers haunted by the discovery of the body from a snuff film theymade several years before.

"I'll certainly be shooting all over Soho," Thomas says ofthe project which he says will be full of filmic references. Thomas's debut asa director, All The Little Animals, screened in Un Certain Regard inCannes in 1998.

Thomas's next project as a producer is Richard Linklater's FastFood Nation, due to shoot in the autumn.

Healso revealed that he is working on a new feature with Bernardo Bertolucci fornext year. Full details are yet to be announced, but Thomas has confirmed it isa "fairly ambitious film," not a chamber piece.

Reflecting on his lifetime achievement award in Locarno,Thomas suggested that the British have not always been so generous toward him."I don't think people (in Britain) quite understand what I am trying to do andwhat I have been trying to do in the last 30 years," he commented.

Meanwhile, Thomas gave a broadly enthusiastic welcome to theUK Treasury's new proposals for tax credits for the film industry. "I haven'tlooked at the proposals in detail, but it seems on a first viewing to be verypositive," he said.