AUTUMN FILM Special AU Clockwise from top right: George MacKay in For Those In Peril; James McAvoy in Filth and Peter Mullan in Sunshine on Leith.
LOCAL HEROS With three highly anticipated and very different Scottish fi lms on the horizon, Allan Hunter asks if Scottish fi lmmaking is witnessing a resurgence
14 THE LIST 22 Aug–19 Sep 2013
is shaping up
Autumn 2013 to be another critical juncture in the story of Scottish filmmaking. Like the mythical Brigadoon, the notion of a national film and television studio has made its traditional appearance from behind a billowing mist of caution and trepidation. If we built it, would more productions come to Scotland? The latest attempt to make the dream a reality has the backing of some influential figures, including Scots producer Iain Smith, chairman of the British Film Commission.
Recent productions using Scotland as a principal location are heading to the autumn film festival circuit. The long-awaited version of Michel Faber’s disturbing science-fiction novel Under The Skin, starring Scarlett Johansson, will appear at Venice and Toronto while the screen adaptation of the late Eric Lomax’s poignant memoirs, The Railway Man, starring Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman, is heading for Toronto and San Sebastian. A sprinkling of movie star glamour never did any harm to the aspirations of an industry. The sight of Brad Pitt in Glasgow or Scarlett Johansson and Daniel Craig in the Highlands has guaranteed front page news. The possibility of JJ Abrams shooting part of the next Star Wars film in Scotland will further underline the country as an incredibly versatile location that can attract the finest talent in the world. Whether it has any lasting benefit on the development of a national film industry is a different matter. That is why the fate of three very different local productions is a much more important indicator of the state of Scottish filmmaking.
This autumn audiences will have the chance to