Los Angeles, Oct 18 (IANS): Producer Jason Blum has apologised for his remarks that there "aren't a lot" of women directors in Hollywood.

Blum took the opportunity at the premiere of "Halloween" here on Wednesday to clarify his headline-grabbing comments about the availability of female directors, reports variety.com.

"I totally misspoke," Blum said.

"I made a mistake about it. Our audience is 55 per cent women; the executives at the company we have are 50 per cent women. I am passionate about hiring women, and I totally made a mistake in the way I represented that. We already work with a lot of women.

"Chelsea Stardust, who is my old assistant, I financed her first movie, but I would like to work with more. Today was a great day for me because I learned a lot and because there are a lot of women out there that I'm going to meet as a result of today so I'm grateful for it," he added.

Blum even posted an apology on Twitter.

Blum's remarks from an interview with Polygon were the subject of criticism on Wednesday when he said absence of female directors in his banner's projects, despite making films for 11 years, was not due to lack of trying.

"We're always trying to do that," Blum said.

"We're not trying to do it because of recent events. We've always been trying. There are not a lot of female directors, period. And even less who are inclined to do horror. I'm a massive admirer of (‘The Babadook' director) Jennifer Kent. I've offered her every movie we've had available. She's turned me down every time."