Evil Britons screened out

Dame Helen Mirren complained in April that the British baddie had become a Hollywood cliche. Photo / Supplied

Fiendish Brits, sinister Asians, foppish Frenchmen and cartoonishly stereotyped Muslims are being banned by Hollywood studio executives to avoid offending foreign audiences.

According to marketing notes prepared by Paramount Pictures for independent film producers seeking commissions, aliens or evil masterminds with "polyglot" accents that don't identify them with a particular country are more welcome now, the Sunday Times reports.

The days of British villains curling their lips and sneering in cut-glass tones, like Alan Rickman's Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, may be history.

The move should please Dame Helen Mirren, who complained in April that the British baddie had become a Hollywood cliche.

"We're not the snooty, stuck-up, malevolent creatures as we are so often portrayed," she said.

- AAP