Ewan McGregor has left Natural Nylon, the UK production company founded by the cream of the country's acting talent in a bid to create a British United Artists.

News of the UK star's departure comes only weeks after the production company lost founder member and producer Damon Bryant, who left to set up his own outfit, Sonnet Pictures.

McGregor, who founded the company with actors including Jonny Lee Miller and Sean Pertwee, was the driving force behind the company's first production, Nora, in which he played writer James Joyce. But he has not appeared in any film for the company since then, pursuing his carer in the US with the Star Wars franchise and home-grown films such as Young Adam.

"He felt bad because he was so busy outside the company," said McGregor's agent Lindy King at Peters Fraser & Dunlop.

Jude Law, Natural Nylon's other most high-profile member, has also been busy working on outside projects such as A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Law starred in one Natural Nylon project, eXistenZ, on which the company took a co-producing credit. Natural Nylon's only other production since has been Mike Barker's English Civil War story To Kill A King.

Bradley Adams, producer and co-founder of the company, was not available to comment. Despite leaving, Bryant was bullish about the Natural Nylon 's future and retained a stake in the company. "We are all very proud of what has been achieved and what is still achievable by Natural Nylon," he said at the time.