"The film came about as I'd written the script back in 1991, having wanted to do a film that children would like, such as my then young sons Joe and Aidan. It's taken so long to make the film that they are now 20 and 17 years old," says Cottrell Boyce.
"The problem was that I never got the balance between comedy and mystery quite right. The leads are children and that means there will be nobody famous walking down the red carpet at the premiere, which makes it quite uncommercial.
"The story happens because of the imagined change of currency in Britain from pounds sterling into euros. That's the ticking clock, the 'McGuffin' as Hitchcock called it, the element that puts everything into motion. These kids can't bury the money to dig up 10 years later.
"We filmed on the East Lancashire Railway, at Bury, and it keys into this romance about railways that lies deep in the British consciousness, whether it's the W H Auden film Night Mail or the Great Train Robbery folklore.
"People are patronising about children's films, yet we are going up against studios like Disney and Pixar (which made The Incredibles), the biggest guns there are in the film world.
"I pushed the script around the industry, although I say so myself, it is an enjoyable read and finally the director Danny Boyle picked it up. Because he directed Trainspotting, everyone expects him to be a mad, Scottish Irvine Welsh-type character."
Apparently Boyle is a very warm courteous, hard-working, decent Lancastrian grafter from Bury, who never loses his temper.
"When we did lectures in Canada he always got up beforehand and apologised to the audience that he is not like one of the drugged zombies in Trainspotting. Coincidentally, Millions has a very similar plot to another Danny Boyle adult film, Shallow Grave, where people find a lot of money with bizarre results," says Cottrell Boyce.
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