A Landscape of Lies: the gangster film that taxed the taxman

It could be a great movie-making satire, along the lines of Argo, or Mel Brooks' The Producers. The pitch: a team of amateur crooks concoct a bogus movie to squeeze millions in tax relief from the government. They claim it cost £20m to make; they get around £3m back. Sorted. Until the taxman asks to see the film. So the crooks hastily dupe some C-list actors into cobbling together a cheap gangster flick. The twist? Said flick turns out to be pretty good. It even wins an award.

You'd pay to see that wouldn't you? Especially if it was "based on actual events" – which this is. Last month, a gang led by actor/producer Aoife Madden became the first people convicted of defrauding the British Film Commission's tax-relief scheme. They falsely claimed to have backing from a Jordanian company to make the ironically titled A Landscape of Lies (we'd change that in our version: too obvious).

When the scam was detected, Madden hastily made the movie for £84,000, with unknowns and TV actors, including Loose Women presenter Andrea McLean and Gianni from EastEnders. The result is a "gritty" (ie cheesy and generic) crime thriller set in "a seedy world of power, lies and betrayal". It won a Silver Ace at last year's Las Vegas Film Festival. (In our movie version it would sweep the Oscars.)

According to the Times, the story is "an intriguing insight into the corruption in Britain's film industry" – the assumption being many movies are elaborate tax scams, draining millions from the public purse. But if anything, it proves the opposite. It's easy to apply for tax relief: but at the end of the shoot, there's a rigorous auditing process to check the money has been properly spent. That's the bit the gang overlooked. Wonder if they'd sell the rights to their story? Anyone got Ben Affleck's email?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/shortcuts/2013/mar/13/landscape-of-lies-gangster-film-tax

So even when the Brits set out to make a "bad" film, it's still sorta good...