FORESTS in and around South Lakeland could soon be attracting film-makers keen to recreate the woodlands of Medieval England or the dense vegetation of British Columbia.

The Forestry Commission has held talks with the Film Commission in London in an effort to lure the industry's location scouts to Cumbria and the North West.

Only recently, remote land at Ennerdale owned by the Forestry Commission was incorporated into a new British film 28 Days Later, directed by Danny Boyle, about a group of people who survive a virus which has wiped out the world's population.

Forestry Commission foreman, Paul Clavey, said: "The area offers tremendous potential for a whole range of filming opportunities.

We've already had quite a few film companies who've approached us on a one-off basis in the past and asked if they could film on our land and we've been happy to help out if it has been appropriate.

But now we've decided to go out and actively market ourselves in a co-ordinated way to the industry."

To interest location scouts, the commission is putting together a pack which highlights the distinct forest

locations on offer from mature, broadleaf forests to coniferous woodlands.

A spokesman for DNA, which filmed parts of 28 days later in Cumbria, said: "We were looking for a wide open, very remote location and Ennerdale was absolutely ideal.

We stayed in the area fir a few days and filmed some very powerful scenes which appear at the end of the film."