3.2 Case study: Spooks – the financial package
As you have seen, putting together the financial package for a film is a complex exercise involving multiple players. Now let’s take a look at the financial package for our case study, Spooks: The Greater Good.
Activity 2 Sources of finance
Before hearing again from the film’s producer, Ollie Madden, take a few moments to think about the likely sources of finance for a film such as Spooks. (Consider how their situation may have been advantageous – if you remember, the film is based on a long running British TV show.)
Note your thoughts in the box below.
Discussion
Ollie Madden describes the financial package that was put together for Spooks: The Greater Good. Watch the video and consider how the reality compares to your thoughts around the likely financial package, and any particular advantages this film project had.

Transcript: Video 8 Ollie talks about raising finance for Spooks
As Ollie mentions, the completion guarantor, Film Finances, was concerned by the ambitious production schedule that Ollie and his team provided.
Spooks: The Greater Good had three clear advantages when it came to raising finance for the film:
- The TV show was already popular in certain countries, which made it easy to pre-sell the rights to the film in those territories.
- As a British film, it automatically qualified for UK tax credit.
- Pinewood Pictures was able to fund the finance gap, and as distributor in the UK was able to pay a minimum guarantee against the UK distribution rights.