LOS ANGELES—Michael Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, says he’s trying to replace LACMA’s 40-year-old weekend film series with a more expanded program, but that means raising as much as $10 million in the next year.

The museum’s decision to end the series because of declining revenue and attendance has generated impassioned protests from movie fans and professionals, including director Martin Scorsese, who wrote Govan an open letter imploring him to reverse his decision. Govan has recently met with both Scorsese and members of Save Film at LACMA, a coalition of movie buffs that has organized an online campaign and petition to rescue the film program. Govan says he wants to revamp the museum’s film department and endow a new film program, and he’s looking for donors who can contribute between $5 million and $10 million. Meanwhile, LACMA has received a donation of $150,000 from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Time Warner Cable, and Ovation TV that will allow the weekend series, originally scheduled to end next month, to continue until June 2010.

Read more at the Los Angeles Times.