Millions is the story of two brothers who find almost £250,000 in a bag by their local railway. The money seems to have fallen from the sky. Damian, eight, wants to give the money to the poor but he can't find them as house prices have forced them out of his area. Anthony, ten, thinks they should tell no one and spend it (otherwise the government will hear about it and take 40% away in tax). Oh, and as the UK is in the process of converting to the Euro, they have only ten days before the cash is useless....

I'm on a 20 city tour of the States to try and explain some of the finer details of Euro conversion and why I appear to have made a heartwarming family film that resembles Shallow Grave for kids, when everyone was waiting for a sequel to 28 Days Later.

To Seattle for the first city stop promoting Millions across the US and Canada. We recorded the music for the film here - it was cheaper to fly me, editor Chris Gill, and composer John Murphy here and record it with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and the North West Boys Choir than to record it in London. Doesn't make sense does it, but here I am again and this time I was upgraded to first class. Result!

"SO UNCOMPROMISING IT WILL NEVER GET FINANCED"

Watched Sideways on the plane. Very funny. Like Mick Jagger and Mike Leigh going on holiday together. Also Dear Frankie, a lovely little film from the UK, massacred by the critics at home. And finally The Notebook, a romantic tearjerker starring Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling.

There's an amazing book called To The White Sea, written by the guy who also wrote Deliverance. It's been brilliantly adapted by David and Janet Peoples (of Unforgiven fame) and I'd like to do it with Ryan Gosling, but it is so uncompromising that it will probably never get financed.

It's the story of a young US bomber shot down over Tokyo in the Second World War who makes his way home out of the firestorm that engulfed the capital, through Northern Japan to his native Alaska. On the way he slaughters any Japanese civilians that recognise him and a lake of 100 swans to harvest their feathers for warmth.

The Coen brothers were going to make it with Brad Pitt, and if that kind of line-up can't raise the finance, then it's unlikely anyone could. Also, there's virtually no dialogue and a ceaseless sense of the savagery needed for survival. The story ends with him embracing his death at the hands of his pursuers, so no happy ending either... except it is viewed as such by the hero.

Getting a film released once it is made can be excruciatingly slow. John Lennon wanted his songs to be on the street the afternoon of the morning they were written.

No such luck with Millions; it's a year since we recorded the music in Seattle and a year before that we started shooting the film. We were going to be released running up to Christmas (and there's a Christmas theme in the film) but the distributors - Pathe in the UK and Fox Searchlight here - were worried that we would be lost in the avalanche of releases seeking Oscar nominations.

Also Polar Express, Christmas With The Kranks, and Surviving Christmas all decided to open on our date in the UK. Thus North America now goes first from 11th March and Pathe will wait in the UK to take advantage of any 'bounce' from the States.

So at all the Q+As here I have to keep my eye out for people bouncing up and down happily in their seats. If you find yourself in Seattle, it does have a rather wonderful Public Library designed by Rem Koolhaas. It's like a dyslexic skyscraper built of latticed glass with luminous lime green escalators. And as befits this town, there appear to be as many computers as books. Thank you to the nice attendant who let me go on the internet for free.

The Q+A goes well and everyone is very positive at Fox Searchlight, but as a Brit I'm constantly supporting caution in its battle with optimism. It's very easy to get carried away by the upbeat approach to life here. By the time I finished a similar publicity tour for A Life Less Ordinary, I was convinced I was on a tigger-like bounce to a record clutch of Oscars; sadly there wasn't much resembling bounce when the film actually came out.

No one wants to give you bad news here but you know some is out there and you'll get it eventually... Best question I've ever had at a Q+A was from a young girl at a schools screening of Millions: "Do you make genuine friends in the film industry?"

Currently on release in America, Millions is scheduled to be released in the UK on Friday 27th May 2005.