{"id":349929,"date":"2026-01-03T12:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T12:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/349929\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T12:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T12:38:12","slug":"how-the-worst-film-maker-in-the-uk-used-hollywood-stars-in-huge-cornwall-tax-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/349929\/","title":{"rendered":"How the \u2018worst film-maker in the UK\u2019 used Hollywood stars in huge Cornwall tax fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hollywood stars were flown into the Cornish countryside before disaster struck<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a true story worthy of a film itself \u2013 except you\u2019d dismiss it as absolutely unbelievable.<\/p>\n

Hollywood actors being helicoptered into the first independent film studio in Britain since the 1960s – in sleepy little Four Lanes in Cornwall<\/a> – as an eccentric, egocentric Helston<\/a>-based director made what has been variously described as the first modern British 3D film and the \u201cworst movie ever made\u201d.<\/p>\n

The late comic actor Rik Mayall, playing a cannibal cook, rubbed shoulders on the film set near Redruth<\/a> with statuesque Rocky actress Brigitte Nielsen, Three Men and a Baby\u2019s Steve Guttenberg and Reservoir Dogs star Michael Madsen, who was rushed to the Royal Cornwall Hospital<\/a> after a drinking binge.<\/p>\n

The Cornish-made film also marked one of the last appearances by legendary actor Peter O\u2019Toole and, indeed, the final performance by Kill Bill star David Carradine.<\/p>\n

Richard Driscoll in a promotional film about the ‘worst movie ever made’ Eldorado<\/p>\n

If that wasn\u2019t astonishing enough, the film \u2013 Eldorado \u2013 led to said Cornish director being jailed for three years for a \u00a31.5 million VAT fraud.<\/p>\n

Richard Driscoll, now 67, who was then living at Wendron, near Helston<\/a>, was found guilty after a trial in London and sent to prison for three years in July 2013.<\/p>\n

How did this extraordinary series of events in the wilds of Cornwall happen?<\/p>\n

I first met Driscoll, who turns 66 this month, in the early Noughties when he invited me to visit his Higher Nanpean Studios in the countryside between Redruth and Falmouth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was a fascinating place – equally ramshackle and high-tech. Hand-painted sets for his series of self-produced, written, directed and acted horror films were a foreboding presence as CGI experts beavered away on computers nearby.<\/p>\n

Driscoll was a charismatic interview subject, his passion for film visible all around from Hannibal Lecter\u2019s mask from Silence of the Lambs taking pride of place in his office to his chat about playing an X-wing pilot in Stars Wars: Return of the Jedi.<\/p>\n

Yes, Driscoll was, and perhaps still is, also an actor known as Steven Craine (to avoid confusion with another actor called Richard Driscoll who played the vicar in EastEnders). As Craine, Driscoll appeared in everything from It Ain\u2019t Half Hot Mum to Boon and Soldier Soldier as well as his own productions.<\/p>\n

The DVD sleeve for Eldorado<\/p>\n

While others have laughed at his films \u2013 it\u2019s not just one film writer or website to dub him the \u201cworst director in the UK\u201d \u2013 Driscoll, an intense man, was deadly serious about straight-to-DVD productions such as Kannibal, Evil Calls and the now infamous Eldorado.<\/p>\n

He proudly showed me scenes from his films, which appeared to be tributes to (some would say copies of) The Silence of the Lambs (2001\u2019s Kannibal) and The Shining, Reservoir Dogs and The Blair Witch Project (2011\u2019s Evil Calls: The Raven which starred Rik Mayall, Jason Donovan and, in his last film appearance, Norman Wisdom \u2013 imagine the wrap party at Four Lanes\u2019 Victoria Inn).<\/p>\n

Our brief working relationship ended abruptly when I contacted him after various neighbours complained about noise and annoying llamas \u2013 yes, llamas \u2013 on his land.<\/p>\n

I saw a different side of Driscoll when he phoned me at the office of the West Briton full of invective and bile after we printed the story. That was the last time I spoke wiith him\u2026 or got shouted and sworn at, should I say.<\/p>\n

The extraordinary story of Eldorado\"videoHeadline\"\/
\n ,’Worst film maker in the UK’,
\nRichard Driscoll discusses Cornwall-made Eldorado <\/p>\n

The film, announced in 2008, was to be his masterwork. Like many of his films, it would be filmed largely at Higher Nanpean Farm in Four Lanes but also in Los Angeles, London and Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

According to The Telegraph, which published a long and hilarious piece about the film a couple of years ago, it was also billed as the first British movie ever filmed in 3D \u2013 or, as Driscoll\u2019s self-penned press release put it, \u201cBritons first \u00a3D film\u201d.<\/p>\n

His dream movie would combine a host of genres in one schlocky film \u2013 horror, thriller, western and musical. The tag-line described it as \u201cMamma Mia for horror fans\u201d.<\/p>\n

Filming began in June 2009, with external shots at The Spirit of the West, the former Wild West tourist attraction at St Columb.<\/p>\n

Daryl Hannah refused to travel from LA to Four Lanes when she starred in Eldorado<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s blurb suggested it was about a road-trip by Oliver and Stanley Rosenblum, a musical act known as The Jews Brothers who flee an angry crowd of neo-Nazis and reach their next gig at the town of Eldorado \u2013 unaware that the town is filled with inbred cannibals.<\/p>\n

The height of taste as you can see.<\/p>\n

The end product wasn\u2019t really about The Jews Brothers (were Blues Brothers director John Landis\u2019 lawyers paying attention?). Actually, it\u2019s not entirely clear what Eldorado was about, full stop.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re not exactly talking Orson Welles here \u2013 large swathes of dialogue aren\u2019t audible and appear to be improvised, and there\u2019s a two-minute scene where the actors mouth the words silently while all you can hear is instrumental music.<\/p>\n

What actors though. Driscoll managed to attract quite a cast, all coming to Cornwall<\/a> apart from Daryl Hannah, who refused to leave LA for Four Lanes. How could she?<\/p>\n

Peter O\u2019Toole, as The Narrator, visibly reads lines off a typed A4 sheet and David Carradine plays a sort of space-age monk.<\/p>\n

Several of the cast sing \u2013 Police Academy star Guttenberg croons along to Tammy Wynette\u2019s Stand By Your Man, Madsen does a rockabilly version of So Glad We Made It, accompanied by two strippers who were naked bar Mexican wrestler masks, and Nielsen is a stripper who performs Aretha Franklin\u2019s Respect in a barbershop surrounded by topless lesbians.<\/p>\n

Except they weren\u2019t singing.<\/p>\n

Short Circuit and Cocoon star Steve Guttenberg travelled to Cornwall to appear in the film<\/p>\n

MJ Simpson, author of Urban Terrors: New British Horror Cinema, told The Telegraph: \u201cThey\u2019re lip-synching. Driscoll went down to his working men\u2019s club in Cornwall and got local pub singers to record cover versions.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn’t just American stars who came to the Cornish countryside \u2013 joining Mayall were former Doctor Who Sylvester McCoy (who, due to sound problems, only has one audible line of dialogue), former Bond girl Caroline Munro, Robert \u201cKryten from Red Dwarf\u201d Llewellyn, 1970s soft porn star Robin Askwith and Bad Manners singer Buster Bloodvessel.<\/p>\n

Nielsen told the Telegraph: \u201cThey sent a helicopter to pick me up in London. The location was inside the director’s private facilities, kind of small \u2018movie-studios\u2019 owned by him. It was definitely a low budget production but I remember them accommodating me in a very nice dressing room. Everybody was so nice to me and the director was very kind.\u201d<\/p>\n

So kind that he spelt her name incorrectly three different ways on the trailer, DVD sleeve and film credits.<\/p>\n

It was reported during the court case that The Hateful Eight star Michael Madsen had to be hospitalised while shooting the film in CornwallHow did he get so many big names to work for him?<\/p>\n

Lee Fenton-Wilkinson, who worked as a propmaker for Driscoll, said: \u201cHe was this incredibly charming guy. He could get people to do the most ridiculous things.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, I\u2019d say that was his one skill. The money wasn\u2019t there. The script certainly wasn\u2019t there. But we all carried on, for some reason. The whole crew seemed to bond together in adversity. In fact, I know three couples who met onset who are still together today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eldorado was actually rejected by the British Board of Film Classification as \u201ctoo strong for an 18 certificate\u201d. However, it then appeared on DVD – with a 15 certificate – before being withdrawn almost straight away.<\/p>\n

It had a new life, missing 30 minutes, as Highway to Hell \u2013 and then in June 2011 Driscoll was arrested on tax fraud charges.<\/p>\n

The trial at Southwark Crown Court heard that Driscoll worked up to 20 hours a day to make Eldorado and coped with a series of problems, including the hospitalisation of Madsen, the star of Donnie Brasco and the Kill Bill films, following a drinking binge at a Cornish hotel.<\/p>\n

Richard Driscoll starred in Kannibal, which he also directed and wrote<\/p>\n

The court heard that Eldorado had a purported production and promotion budget of \u00a312 million but actually cost about \u00a3750,000.<\/p>\n

The scam included a bogus invoice showing that Carradine, the star of the 1970s TV series Kung Fu, was paid more than \u00a3400,000 for 13 days\u2019 filming, even though he had died two weeks earlier.<\/p>\n

Hannah was purportedly paid \u00a3575,000 for seven days\u2019 shooting in Cornwall, even though she never left the United States. Another fake invoice showed Mayall received \u00a344,350 for four days\u2019 filming when his fee was actually \u00a36,000 for two days.<\/p>\n

Driscoll was convicted of conspiring to claim \u00a31.5 million of VAT refunds in connection with Eldorado and two other films, Watchmen of Hellgate and Back2Hell. He was found not guilty of conspiring to claim more than \u00a32 million in film tax credit subsidies for Eldorado.<\/p>\n

What happened to Richard Driscoll<\/p>\n

Mr Fenton-Wilkinson said: \u201cI got a call from him a few days before he went to prison. He said he\u2019d be away for a while, but asked if I\u2019d knock up a few visuals for a new TV project he\u2019d be working on. A cover for the DVD, that kind of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a medieval fantasy romp with the title, in typical Driscoll fashion, Games Of The Thorns.<\/p>\n

It appears that since leaving prison Driscoll is still making and issuing films.<\/p>\n

A search of the internet reveals a number of films made by him are for sale, including Black Knight (2017), The Kamikaze Squad (2017), Blade Hunter (2017) Linnea Quigley\u2019s Grindhouse (2016), A Bad Night In Death Valley (2016), Head Hunter 3D (2014) and The Legend of Harrow Woods (2014).<\/p>\n

A promotional cast poster for Richard Driscoll film The Kamikazi Squad<\/p>\n

It appears many of these are re-edits and new versions of his previous films.<\/p>\n

The films are listed under Driscoll\u2019s name and Hopfix Media, which is listed as being based in Redruth. Does that mean we will see another studio in Cornwall with more Hollywood celebs being flown in?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll leave the last word about Driscoll to film writer MJ Simpson: \u201cDespite the fact he\u2019s absolutely awful at it, at the heart of the scam was his desire to make the biggest movie he\u2019d ever made. And that\u2019s why there\u2019s something of the myth about him even now.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people discover him, they want to find out more about his work. As cult film-makers go, he\u2019s the cultest you can get.\u201d<\/p>\n

Article originally published in 2019<\/p>\n

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