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Indie films losing out to obsession with bankable stars, says Richard Eyre

British director whose career is being celebrated at the BFI says creative industry increasingly wants safe bets

Alongside Dench and Pryce, they include Cate Blanchett, the late Maggie Smith, and Colin Firth, whose first big role was in Eyre’s 1988 BBC Falklands drama, Tumbledown. On television he has directed episodes of Play for Today, The Cherry Orchard, and King Lear – an adaptation starring Anthony Hopkins that garnered huge critical acclaim. Written by the bestselling author Rose Tremain, it’s a romance fictionalising the inspiration behind Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, starring Hopkins, Uma Thurman and Phoebe Dynevor.

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