Film director David Lynch has joined the growing campaign against the Vivendi chief executive, Jean-Marie Messier, saying the sacking of Pierre Lescure will lead to a "McDonald's-style standardisation" of cinema and television.
The critically acclaimed director said the decision to fire Mr Lescure as the chief executive of Canal Plus marked the end of a golden era, which had brought together an independently minded European film producer and the best of a Hollywood studio.
"That's all finished now. We are entering an era of standardisation and of mass-produced cinema," he says in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde.
Lynch's last two films, Mulholland Drive and The Straight Story, were produced by Canal Plus's film arm, StudioCanal.
As the president of this year's Cannes film festival and the winner of last year's best director award for Mulholland Drive, Lynch has a particular interest in the health of the French film industry.
He said his role as jury president would take on added significance following the departure of Mr Lescure and expressed concern that a "certain kind of cinema" could disappear along with its champion at the pay TV company.
StudioCanal has a long history of backing successful but offbeat films; recent credits include Billy Elliot and The Others. The company also has a three year film deal with Mike Leigh, the director of Secrets and Lies.
Describing Mr Messier as "charming and intelligent", Lynch said the French businessman must have had his "head turned by the Californian sun" and the lure of Hollywood-style profits.
"France has an incredibly strong tradition of film-making, helped by a regulatory system that has permitted it to retain a local industry," he said.
"If I were French I would be scandalised to see that system come under threat."
Lynch added that Mr Lescure's replacement, former TF1 head Xavier Couture, would be unlikely to fit in at Canal Plus because TF1 was its polar opposite.
"I can't see how those two cultures will be reconcilable," he said, adding: "Why was it necessary to replace Pierre Lescure anyway?"
More than 250 celebrities have turned out in support of Mr Lescure, including the footballers Nicolas Anelka, Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel Petit, the actors Juliette Binoche and Charlotte Gainsbourg and the Bosnian film director Emir Kusturica.
