Father Geek here with a report sent direct to Austin's Geek Headquarters from Scotland. This really should have gone through our editors in Paris at: EuroAICN@yahoo.com ,buuuuut its here already so I'll go ahead and post it anyway.(Sorry guys, don't mean to step on your toes here) This is a really fine update on Scotland's film industry and you geeks around the world should think about sending reports like this about your country's cinema efforts to us every now and then, but if its Euro-news go ahead and send it to our Paris office. Let's have some of these on the current state of film in Brazil, Mexico, Hong Kong, Japan and other places; send them to us, the world wants to know.
William Wallace here reporting in from the unofficial Scottish sub-office of EuroAICN with news on twenty or so projects from my fair land at various stages of development.
The fact that I am writing this article is in itself something of a miracle. Ten years ago the Scottish film industry could be pretty much summed up in two words - Bill Forsyth (the director of Local Hero and Gregory's Girl). A decade later things are very different. There is something of a cultural renaissance sweeping Scotland these days, due in no small part to the return of the Scottish Parliament after 300 years. Scotland is still proving an attractive location for international productions, like THE CUP and THE HOUSE OF MIRTH which filmed here last year, but they have been joined by an increasing number of native Scottish productions, which can only be good news (especially for aspiring Scottish film-makers like myself). Anyway, that's enough havering from me. Using all my power and influence as the disembodied spirit of a disemboweled national hero, here's what I discovered...
Shooting begins next month on the DONALD MACNEEP HAS LOST HIS SHEEP, a cross- culture comedy in which farming families from the Scottish Highlands and Crete are brought into conflict by a romance between their children. Filming will take place in Scotland and Crete and the film stars Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas), Maurice Roëves (The Last of the Mohicans), Douglas Henshall (Orphans) and Claire Forlani (Meet Joe Black) under the direction of Tony Smith (Grushko).
A cinematic adaptation of German author Angela Sommer-Bodenburg's THE LITTLE VAMPIRE was filmed in Edinburgh and the historic village of Culross late last year. The story was adapted by Larry Wilson (Beetlejuice) and Karey Kirkpatrick (James and the Giant Peach), with Ulrich Edel (Last Exit to Brooklyn) directing. Jonathan Lipnicki (Jerry Maguire) plays an American boy who is befriended by a family of Scottish vampires. Richard E. Grant (Withnail and I), Alice Krige (Star Trek: First Contact), and Jim Carter (Brassed Off) also star.
Shakespeare's "Scottish Play" has attracted some of the world's greatest film-makers. Directors as diverse as Kurosawa, Welles, and Polanski have tackled Macbeth with varying degrees of success. Now the play is once again the subject of cinematic adaptation, with not one but three projects in development. Apart from Kenneth Branagh's much talked about Wall Street set production (which I think will feel pretty routine after Almereyda's Hamlet is released), Luc Besson is producing a more traditional version. First time director Vincent Regan will helm MACBETH, which is scheduled to shoot in Scotland and the French region of Brittany. The multinational cast includes Phil McKee (Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc) as Macbeth, Emmanuelle Béart (Manon Des Sources) as Lady Macbeth, Peter Mullan (My Name is Joe) as Macduff and Fred Ward (The Player) as Duncan. There is also a low budget (GBP 3 million) Scottish production entitled JOE MACBETH. Like Branagh's production it will have! a contemporary setting but this one will take place in a Glasgow rather than Manhattan. The film will use the basic framework of the play to explore the rivalry between two dockyards competing for the declining ship-building business.
Mick Jagger's Jagged Films is producing a version of Thomas Harris' WWII thriller ENIGMA which will be partly shot in Scotland. Michael Apted (Gorillas in the Mist) will direct the story of a young man who realizes his girlfriend might be a German spy while he struggles to crack Nazi U-boat codes. The cast includes Scotland's own Dougray Scott (Singer's original Wolverine), Saffron Burrows (Deep Blue Sea) and Kate Winslet. Tom Stoppard (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead) has adapted Harris' novel and changed the climax from straightforward shoot-out to a duel between a U-boat and the RAF on a remote Scottish coastline. Locations are currently being sought in Edinburgh and Argyllshire.
Glasgow based Gabriel Films, in association with the BBC, is developing a film based on the life of one of Scotland's most famous monarchs. MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS has been written by Jimmy McGovern (Priest and tv's Cracker) and the reputedly controversial script centres on the tragic Queen's relationship with the Earl of Bothwell and her half-brother James. Filming is expected to take place in Edinburgh and the Scottish Borders. In addition there are two further Mary Queen of Scots films which have been in development for some time. THE FATMAN'S DAUGHTER is, as the title suggests, a more irreverent version, using the relationship between Mary and Elizabeth I of England as a political satire. The battle between Mary and Elizabeth will also be the focus of the third film. MARY STUART, adapted from Schiller's play Maria Stuart, is set to be directed by Richard Eyre (The Insurance Man) and based upon a version of the play he directed at England's National Theatre. The project has at! tracted interest from Glenn Close and Meryl Streep but there's been no news on this production for a while.
Among the other projects Gabriel Films are developing are two horror films. THE BOTHY, written by James Mackinnes, has a group of mountaineers trapped by a storm in the Highlands when a plane carrying an extradited U.S. serial killer crashes on their mountainside, resulting in much running through the heather and a rising body count (for non-Scots, a bothy is a simple building in a remote area that can be used by anyone who needs shelter). Their second horror tale is DOMAIN, a film inspired by black magician Aleister Crowley's attempts to raise the Devil in a remote house beside Loch Ness.
A couple of months ago you posted my piece on a new film based on the life of Scotland's national poet Robert Burns. Although there have been no official announcements regarding casting, and I believe that there is still no director attached either, the film is scheduled to begin shooting in the summer in Ayrshire, Dumfries, Edinburgh and at Pinewood Studios. Provisionally titled CLARINDA, Andrew Gerard's script focuses on the ploughman poet's affair with Agnes McLehose - a married woman from Edinburgh high society. The press would have us believe that it is a battle between Ewan McGregor and Johnny Depp to play Burns (which probably means that neither have even been approached, and anyway Ewan will be playing with his lightsabre again this summer) while other possible cast members include Robert Carlyle as Gavin Hamilton, Burns' friend and lawyer, and Emma Thompson as the object of Burns' affections. The film is being produced by Alloway Films and at GBP 20 million it has the! biggest ever budget for a Scottish production.
Richard Dreyfuss will play another Scottish literary figure in BOSWELL. Directed by Bruce Beresford, and based on the Australian play Boswell for the Defence, the film is set during the final years of the life of writer and lawyer James Boswell. Boswell, whose "Life of Johnson" is generally regarded as one of the world's greatest biographies, also led an excessive lifestyle filled with alcohol, drugs and sex. In the film, Boswell takes one final court case to save the life of a condemned woman and redeem his past mistakes. The film will shoot later this year but as yet it is unclear if any of it will be filmed in Scotland.
Trainspotting producer Andrew MacDonald's new production company DNA Films has two movies coming out this year. CREATURES is a contemporary thriller scripted by Simon Donald and directed by Bill Eagles. Starring Rachel Weisz (The Mummy), Susan Lynch (Waking Ned Devine), Iain Glen (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead), and Maurice Roëves (The Last of the Mohicans), it follows the story of two women thrown together by the violent lifestyles of their boyfriends. After they accidentally kill one of the men, the women are forced into an increasingly elaborate and dangerous attempt to evade discovery. The romantic comedy STRICTLY SINATRA is directed by Peter Capaldi, who won an Oscar for his surreal short film Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life, and set in Glasgow's Scottish-Italian community. The film follows Toni Cocozza, a Sinatra-obsessed singer, who falls in with local gangsters in the hope they will make him a star. The film features Ian Hart (Backbeat), Kelly MacDonald (Tr! ainspotting) and Brian Cox (Manhunter). It was also set to star the veteran Scottish actor Ian Bannen (Waking Ned Devine), but sadly the actor died during production and his role has been recast.
Douglas Rae's Ecosse Films is still basking in the critical and commercial success of Mrs. Brown, and they have a number of projects in development. CHARLOTTE GRAY is based on the best- selling WWII novel by Sebastian Faulks and tells the story of a Scotswoman who falls in love with an RAF pilot. When she learns his plane is lost, she travels to France and joins the French Resistance to search for him, only to find herself battling to save two Jewish boys from the gas chamber. Cate Blanchett is rumoured to be very interested in the lead role. The film has a budget of GBP 12 million with locations in Scotland (Edinburgh, St. Andrews and the Forth Bridge), London and France. THE WATER HORSE is a GBP 16 million family fantasy, which producer Rae pitched to Miramax honcho Harvey Weinstein as "ET in the Highlands." It is based on the novel by "Babe" author Dick King Smith. Gillies MacKinnon (Regeneration) will direct the story of two children who find a newly hatched kelpie - a my! thical Scottish beastie. When the creature grows to too large for their home they are forced to release it into Loch Ness. THE FARM is a gritty contemporary drama in which a reformed convicted murderer who becomes the leader of an adventure based course for young offenders in the Highlands.
Elton John's production company Rocket Pictures is following in the footsteps of their first, yet to be released, production WOMEN TALKING DIRTY, by adapting another contemporary Scottish novel. A. L. Kennedy's much admired SO I AM GLAD will be co-produced and star real life husband and wife Ed Harris and Amy Madigan. The novel describes the story of an abused Glaswegian radio announcer whose new flatmate turns out to be the French writer and soldier Cyrano de Bergerac, thought to have died in 1655, but now returned from Purgatory. Filming is expected to take place in Glasgow and Paris and there are rumours that the film may also be helmed by Harris (who made his directorial debut on Pollock last year)
Scottish director Lynne Ramsay is set to follow up her award winning debut RATCATCHER with an adaptation of Allan Warner's cult novel MORVERN CALLAR. Waking up to find her boyfriend has committed suicide, the titular heroine disposes of his body, takes his CD collection, the contents of his bank account, and his unpublished novel, and abandons her Scottish seaside town for the Spanish rave scene. Filming will take place on Scotland's west coast and Spain.
Brian Cox (Manhunter) is developing an UNTITLED ANDREW CARNEGIE BIOPIC in which the actor will star as the Scottish born multimillionaire. The film will focus on Carnegie's attitude towards charity and his desire to give away his fortune before he died. Locations will include Dunfermline (Carnegie's birthplace) and Skibo Castle (the Highland retreat where he spent the last years of his life).
Antonine Films is developing a film based on Luke Sutherland's powerful novel of racism and misogyny JELLY ROLL. Morag Mackinnon will direct the film about a black sax player touring the Scottish Highlands.
Scottish actor Robert Carlyle recently formed the production company 4Way Pictures with director Antonia Bird and Mark Cousins (former director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and host of Moviedrome). The company has fourteen films in development but I only managed to find out about two projects. The first film likely to be made is an UNTITLED BENNY LYNCH BIOPIC in which Bird will direct Carlyle in the rise and fall of Scotland's greatest boxer. Born into poverty in Glasgow, Lynch became World Flyweight Champion in 1938. He was a national hero (100,000 turned out to welcome the champion home from his title fight) but his increasing alcoholism began to alienate Lynch from his fans, destroyed his career and led to his death from pneumonia at 33. The second project I have learned about will also star Carlyle. The UNTITLED SCOTTISH WESTERN seems very close to the actor's heart as he is heavily involved in developing the script. The exact story is unknown at this stage! but I discovered that it is set in the 18th century and follows a Highlander who is exiled from Scotland to North America where seeks fame and fortune as gunman.
On a final note, I have some news from behind the camera. Incredibly, Scotland still lacks a film studio complex. Most productions forced to find temporary accommodation (Braveheart used an abandoned distillery) or use studio facilities elsewhere, but that is soon about to change. There are a number of schemes in development and the most exciting is a plan by Sony Pictures and a consortium of Scottish businessmen, led by a certain Mr. Sean Connery, to build a facility outside Edinburgh. Sony Pictures have announced they would use the GBP 100 studios to produce twenty films in the first five years, with Connery committed to starring in five of them. Unfortunately, the scheme has fallen foul of Edinburgh planners who object to the proposed site of the complex and this has currently stalled the project. Even if Connery's studio fails to get the go ahead there are a further eight or nine rival studio plans in the pipeline, including a similarly sized scheme to be sited near the fa! mous Gleneagles Golf Course in Perthshire and a more modest proposal for the centre of Glasgow, so in a few years Scotland should have at least one shiny new studio complex. With the arrival of a studio, hopefully Scotland can look to the film industries in other small countries as a model for the future, such as Australia where a vibrant domestic industry is complemented with occasional major foreign productions.
Keep up the good work big man, and remember, mony a miekle maks a muckle...
Cheers,
William Wallace
