Winstone slams 'scumbag' investors

Ray Winstone has attacked the "scumbags" he says are damaging the British film industry.

The 55-year-old, who stars in a big-screen remake of 1970s TV favourite The Sweeney, slammed the use of private investors in movies.

He told the Radio Times: "I think there's a lot of scumbags in our game, to be honest with you.

"When I first came into it you used to sit down with a man and shake his hand and it was done. Or if it wasn't done, no-one was s****ed over."

Ray, who also stars in the Kristen Stewart movie Snow White And The Huntsman, said: "Maybe I'm being a bit of a romantic. But now there's people coming into this game who are using private investors - 30 grand here, 100 grand there - and they all want to be in the film. And that money's gone before the film's even made. It's gone into someone's pocket."

The Sexy Beast actor added: "It's almost like that film The Producers. 'We don't want a hit, we just want the money'. And it's happening again and again and again."

Ray, who starred in the 1979 film Scum, said: "There's dogs and scumbags in this game and the British film industry's got to sort it out."

The actor also told the magazine that he was not trying to replicate John Thaw's performance in the original Sweeney.

"You can't emulate what John Thaw did - he was an icon. He was brilliant, and that was the worry for me. So I had to think: what we're actually making is a cops and robbers film, and then we called it The Sweeney afterwards," he said.