Bradford South Labour MP Gerry Sutcliffe hopes to bring Hollywood bigshots to Bradford in September.

He wants to convince them that this is the place where they should build movie studios, develop local talent and use the city as a film set.

He aims to hold a top-level meeting this autumn, perhaps at Bradford University’s management centre, where a proper case for Bradford as a creative industries hub can be set alongside incentives such as the UK’s 25 per cent tax relief for film-makers, soon to be extended to television.

He said that plans were put in motion long before the current National Media Museum crisis.

Earlier this year Mr Sutcliffe was part of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport, that visited San Francisco and Los Angeles as part of their inquiry into the impact of creative industries – music, film, television and computer games – on national and regional economies.

The committee’s report, which may call for the creation of regional creative industries hubs, is due to be published later this year.

Sitting in the National Media Museum’s recently refurbished cafe-restaurant yesterday, Mr Sutcliffe said: “Warner Brothers applied for planning permission to extend their studio in London. It was turned down a few weeks ago.

“When we went to Los Angeles to the film studios I told them about the City of Film and Bradford College’s film school and that we had the employment talent, and they were keen on that.

“Hollywood movie makers are coming to Bradford, hopefully in September, to look at opportunities for investment in studios, location and education projects.

“Bradford can be part of a Yorkshire creative industries hub. But it’s got to be a partnership between the Council, the National Media Museum, Bradford businesses and Bradford people.

“The issues around the present headlines about the National Media Museum go far deeper than knee-jerk reactions. Ian Blatchford, the director of the National Science Museum, warned the Council two years ago that cuts were coming and that the museum needed the Council’s help.”

Mr Sutcliffe has been nurturing ideas on the part Bradford’s cultural and social history can play in the future development of the Odeon and the National Media Museum.

He thinks these ideas can be made real by new Government heritage funding aided by private money.

“We need to think this through and act in concert with each other and not against each other,” he added. “Otherwise we will lose the National Media Museum. We will lose the impetus of further incentives in media, culture and sport. Major investors will lose confidence in Bradford.”

Councillor Dave Green, the Leader of Bradford Council, said that he was unaware of any conversations the Council had with Mr Blatchford earlier than the last few weeks.

Coun Green said that he had checked paperwork and no formal meeting had taken place or any written request for any financial support made to the Council.

He said: “If there was a conversation to be had I would have expected it to have been with me as I was the portfolio holder at the time. The first time I met Ian Blatchford was in the last few weeks. I will make inquiries as to who that conversation was with.

“Certainly in the past 12 months there has been no approach from the museum to the Council for assistance.”