Directors Lobby To Keep Film In Hollywood

Top Hollywood directors are backing a bid to keep celluloid film alive in the movie and television industry.

Kodak is aiming to strike a deal with all of the major studios as it faces stiff competition from digital technologies.

Christopher Nolan, JJ Abrams and Quentin Tarantino are among those lobbying for real film to still be used in the motion picture business.

Abrams is currently shooting the new Star Wars: Episode VII on celluloid and Nolan used it on science fiction film Interstellar, which stars Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway.

Kodak is "very hopeful that an agreement will be put into place," Kodak spokesperson Louise Kehoe told The Hollywood Reporter.

The company filed for bankruptcy protection from its creditors in January 2012, after 131 years in business, as the company fell behind rivals in digital photography.

It emerged from the protection in August last year, but has still seen a huge drop in the amount of linear print film it is manufacturing.

The Wall Street Journal reports that sales have plummeted 96% since 2006, from 12.4 billion linear feet to an estimated 449 million this year.

It has few competitors now after Fujifilm left the business behind last year.

Abrams has previously said that film sets the standard for the "best quality".

The negotiations with studios would involve studios committing to purchasing a certain amount of film without knowing how many, if any, of their movies will be shot on the medium over the next few years.