UIP has boardedRichard Attenborough's $20m Anglo-Canadian epic, Closing The Ring, it was confirmedat the launch of the new Northern Ireland Production Fund. The film isto shoot in the early autumn in Northern Ireland and Canada. It is receiving£500,000 from the new fund.

The project,originally supported by Grosvernor Park, was one of the many projects left inlimbo by the Inland Revenue's shock closure of tax-based production funds onFebruary 10th this year. It has now been successfully re-financed. Canadiancompany Remstar yesterday committed to the production.

Speaking toScreen International, Lord Attenborough expressed his frustration at thepersistent abuses of the fiscal incentives and tax breaks which the current UKGovernment has given the film industry. "There were people who took theindustry for the ride. It's tragic because the Labour Government has backed themovie industry from the word go. (UK Chancellor) Gordon Brown put in placethese ideas which were stolen."

Attenboroughargued that the UK industry should be "optimistic" about the new, as yet hazilydefined, Section 48 tax credits for producers.