Maverick British director Mike Figgis has attacked Star Wars supremo George Lucas on the issue of digital film-making. Figgis, who recently released Time Code 2000, a film shot entirely with handheld digitial videocams in real time, cast serious aspersions on Lucas's claims to be a technological pioneer.

Chatting with the Boston Globe newspaper, Figgis declared: "[Lucas] is really not interested in putting a camera in his pocket and running around with it. His camera will cost in the region of £100,000, will compete with the finest 35mm camera, and will require the equivalent of a team of brain surgeons to maintain it. The revolution is not going to come from that particular citadel."

Warming to his theme, the bearded Leaving Las Vegas auteur got provocative: "I mean, with all due respect, who's George Lucas? He's basically a very rich phenomenon who's interested in a certain kind of technology and children's storytelling."