The method of bringing in an A-list star to tempt investors into backing a new movie has been successfully employed in Hollywood for decades. Over the past 18 months this model has also worked perfectly for four new funds that have attracted £4bn without a single penny of investment.

The names have been the pull: millionaire entrepreneur Nat Rothschild, coal industry king James Campbell, former BP chief executive Tony Hayward and ex-Goldman Sachs UK chief executive Julian Metherell. Other funds have been launched by Hugh Osmond, the name behind Punch Taverns, Pizza Express and the Pearl Group, and by Paris-based billionaire Nicolas Berggruen, who brought in Lord Myners as chairman.