AN East Lancashire movie mogul has clinched his biggest ever deal - and seen his personal fortune soar, it was revealed today.

Gary Smith's Winchester Entertainment firm has secured more than £300million to finance a string of Hollywood blockbusters by one of the movie world's biggest producers.

The deal is the latest announced by the former Blackburn schoolboy this year following ones to make a film version of cartoon favourite Mr Benn and another starring the All Saints pop group.

And the latest deal has sent the share price of Winchester up to its highest ever level. Former QEGS pupil Gary, 41, owns more than a quarter of the firm making his paper stake worth around £10million - more than treble what it was a year ago.

The firm has teamed up with Chuck Gordon, producer of the Die Hard films, Waterworld and Field of Dreams, to fund a series of £50million-budget movies. After nine months of tapping investors around the world, Gary's London-based company has secured the financing for the films and will act as distributor for the movies outside the US.

The first movie under the Chuck Gordon deal is likely to be a romantic adventure called Black Rock by director Jan de Bont, who made Twister and Speed 2.

Black Rock's budget will be 80million US dollars (£49 million).

Mr Gordon's firm, Daybreak Productions, already has a slate of 10 films in the pipeline to be made with the funding. Daybreak is expected make four films a year.

Gary moved into the film industry from accountancy, but his first business was the ailing Kenyon's Bakery in Blackburn, which he bought from the receivers.

In March 1993, he launched Winchester plc and floated it on the stock market later that year.

Despite moving to Birmingham, he is still a big Blackburn Rovers fan and his new home is called "Ewood Lodge". His parents Ray and Sylvia still live in Ramsgreave Drive, Blackburn.

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