Sam Mendes: Recession is affecting movie-making

Hollywood film director Sam Mendes has said that period films are "almost impossible to make" due to the current recession. The American Beauty director is married to actress Kate Winslet, who starred in his 2008 hit movie Revolutionary Road, alongside Leonardo DiCaprio. He said: "They're serious films, they have something to say, they're the ones that are almost impossible to make." Mendes’ new movie Away We Go stars John Krasinski, Allison Janney and Maya Rudolph, and he said the movie was "very cheap" to make because it doesn't feature any big-name stars. He added: "But the movies in the middle are almost getting squeezed out, which is the big dramas, the movies that do cost a bit of money… with well-known actors in them." The full interview airs tomorrow on BBC Radio 4’s The Film Programmer, at 4.30pm (BST).