British film-makers missing a trick

In The Guardian, John Patterson wonders why it took a French film-maker to adapt Ted Lewis's novel, Plender (released as Le Serpent), directed by Eric Barbier) and suggests it's not an isolated case.

Without getting too culturally nationalistic about it, why is Le Serpent not a British movie? Why did it take a foreigner to discern a superb film property within an out-of-print novel written three decades ago in another language? I only ask because it happens a lot. As foreign film-makers merrily plunder the nooks and crannies of our culture, nosing around like truffle dogs for the suitably scented kernel of an idea, we - the British - seem almost resolutely clueless about the riches strewn all around us.