Scottish Screen’s new chief executive has pledged himself to push for a national film studio on the Pinewood Studios scale, making proposals ready within a year.

Steve McIntyre, in his first detailed public announcement since taking over from John Archer, the deposed chief executive, also emphasised the importance of forging new links between the home film industry and international markets, to benefit from multiple tax credits. He has also urged government to base a UK digital television channel in Scotland - a political decision expected to be announced by Tessa Jowell, arts and culture minister at Westminster.

Mr McIntyre said: "In the next few months, I will restart discussions with the Scottish Executive and Scottish Enterprise to see what our critical path is to moving the studio forward. I would like to see some clarity within a year.

"The studio is a huge undertaking and will be very expensive. I absolutely think a studio in Scotland will be very beneficial to the industry in Scotland - be it a studio in Edinburgh, or Inverness or Glasgow.

"We need to balance keeping the costs low but making the studio big enough to attract business from overseas. It would raise the game and give people experience of working on substantial international production and we will become more marketable."

Rival studio projects are a Sean Connery-backed proposal for a commercial operation near Edinburgh and a studio proposal for Inverness from actor James Cosmo. Scottish Screen supports the Cosmo venture and this could affect prospects for any studio in Glasgow. Competition is clearly intense.

Recently, plans were revealed for a new movie studio complex and international film academy for South Wales, creating more than 2000 jobs, with a movie-based leisure park at a former opencast site near the M4 between Cardiff and Bridgend.

Mr McIntyre called for more divergence in Scotland, saying there had been too much emphasis on making a box-office blockbuster.

With the capacity in Scotland to make six feature films a year, with enough skilled crews, writers, directors, and producers, to make two features simultaneously, the fight now, he warned, was to avoid the brain drain of skills to London.

Mr McIntyre was formerly head of production development at Scottish Screen and a former chief executive of the London film and video development agency.

He has now signalled a broadening role for Scottish Screen.

"In the past, we have been too focused on ourselves. We live in an era of technological convergence and cross-platform working and companies in Scotland will need to work across film, television, new media, and games. We need to foster and nurture this convergence to enable companies to benefit from the new markets."