The Thick Of It creator Armando Iannucci has said he was advised against doing a Donald Trump-related project because of the risk of being "weighed down by legal issues".
The Scottish writer and director, 61, is known for his political satire and was behind the film The Death Of Stalin as well as the hit HBO series Veep, starring Seinfeld actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the fictional selfish and driven vice-president Selina Meyer.
Speaking at UK Labour party conference, Iannucci said an idea he had about the current US president was met with reservations out of fear of the legal backlash it would cause.
He said: "I talked a couple of months ago about wanting to do something about Trump, not a satire on Trump, but maybe doing something with his speeches.
"I got a lot of 'you probably won't get the money for that now at the moment’. And talking to journalists out there who say, ‘if you’re on the list, your life is made miserable’. Then revenue will come calling, you better lawyer up. You’ll spend the next four years just weighed down by legal issues that you have to get through."
When asked if he was going to go ahead with the project he replied: "Let’s see. There’s a long way to go before anything like that will happen."
The writer and director also emphasised the importance of traditional public service broadcasting commissioners, such as the BBC or Channel 4, in nurturing new creatives.
He said: "So my experience has been that this key public service broadcasting industry and our skill set in studios and in television and radio and the creative arts is the training ground for the next generation of talents.
Iannucci warned, however, that these opportunities are diminishing as public service broadcasters face funding cuts and greater pressures to be more risk averse.
He said: "Traditional commissioners, like the BBC and Channel 4, are finding it harder to finance dramas unless there’s a big name in it, but also unless an American streamer comes in with some money as well, but the American streamers are now saying, ‘Well, why? We could just pay them to work for us’.
"The problem is if the big streamers are starting to do all that, that’s great that the work is still there, but it’s harder for you starting out.
"You might be a young writer in Liverpool or in Newcastle, it’s harder to get into Netflix at that stage of your career, whereas it was always easier to get into the BBC or to local television or to local radio.
"We’re in danger of forgetting how we nurture the good stuff, let alone pay for it."
Iannucci also described the creative industries as being a "sizeable chunk" of the UK’s economy and that it should not be regarded as an "afterthought" or a "luxury".
"It’s GDP is equivalent of the oil and the car industry together. If it was an IT system or an AI system or a weapon system, ministers would be out all around the world trying to sell it," he said.
"The reason so many people come from around the world, especially America, to make their movies and to make their shows here is because our skills are amazing. Our talent is amazing. Our studios and resources are brilliant.
"So, it’s an industry that actually should be in the top table in terms of prioritising it.
"It’s a key industry that requires that injection of growth.
"The knock-on effect that has throughout the generations, but also to our economy, is immense.
"That’s why I talk about it as often as I can, to defend this industry that we have here, that if we’re not careful, will just get broken up."
Iannucci worked on radio shows before television, alongside comedians such as Chris Morris, Stewart Lee and Steve Coogan during BBC mock current affairs programme The Day Today and had his own sketch comedy The Armando Iannucci Shows on Channel 4.
The success of his series The Thick Of It, which starred Doctor Who actor Peter Capaldi as swearing spin doctor Malcolm Tucker, raised Iannucci’s profile even higher and when he put out the 2009 Oscar-nominated spin-off film, In The Loop, it helped make his name in the US.
Source: Press Association
