june 08
SCOT-I
LAND’s
sss
got
talent
SCOT-I
LAND’s got
talent
Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, Ratcatcher,
Young Adam and The Magdalene Sisters.
Just some of the ground-breaking films that have
come from Scotland’s long list of exciting, creative
and original filmmakers.
USA, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland,
South Africa. Just some of the countries that
Scotland’s production community have worked
with in partnership.
Scottish Screen is proud to present a selection
of the companies and creative talent it is
currently working with, companies with projects
in development, production and currently seeking
finance.
We’re confident that you’ll agree with
us that Scotland’s got talent!
Outpost
BLACK CAMEL PICTURE COMPANY LTD
Black Camel Pictures is a
Glasgow based production
company owned and run by
producers Arabella Page
Croft and Kieran Parker in
collaboration with writer/director
Steve Barker and assisted
by Michael Callaghan, who
looks after submissions and
development.
Arabella and Kieran recently
won Best New Producers at the
Scottish New Talent BAFTAs
2008 for their first feature, the
action horror film Outpost.
Outpost was produced in 2007/8
and went on general release on
16 May 2008. It is distributed by
Vertigo Films for Sony Pictures.
Outpost has been sold worldwide
and was acquired by Sony
Pictures Worldwide in a multiterritory deal. The film stars Ray
Stevenson (Rome, King Arthur)
and Richard Brake (Hannibal
Rising, Batman Begins), and
also marks the feature debut of
director Steve Barker and writer
Rae Brunton.
Contact:
Arabella Page Croft & Kieran Parker
Black Camel Pictures
55 Partickhill Road
Glasgow, G11 5AB
T: +44 (0)141 339 2059
F: +44 (0) 5601 121 628
W: www.blackcamel.co.uk
Black Camel’s next film is the
brutal revenge thriller Blood
Makes Noise, to be directed by
their collaborator Steve Barker
and set up with the same team
behind Outpost. The project has
been developed with support
from Scottish Screen and is
currently financing.
Black Camel has an active
development slate of ambitious,
high end, commercial genre films
and is committed to developing
long-term relationships with
fresh British talent such as
Steve Barker and Rae Brunton
whose energy, determination
and ambition matches that of the
company.
The Bedfords
Brocken Spectre
Producing short projects since
2001, film production company
Brocken Spectre’s latest short
film Shell recently won The
UK Film Council’s is award for
Best Short Film at the London
Short Film Festival in January
2008. Prior to this the company
was BAFTA nominated for short
films Rank (2002) and the BBC
Scotland and Scottish Screen
commission Kissing, Tickling
and Being Bored (2006).
Brocken Spectre continues to
develop and produce exciting
short films. In September 2007,
Rosie Crerar produced The Clay
Wall written and directed by
Duncan Marquiss and funded by
Scottish Screen and the Scottish
Arts Council as an artists’ film
and video project. In May 2008,
Ciara Barry produced The
Bedfords by Henry Coombes,
a short film project funded by
Scottish Screen, Sorcha Dallas
and Dumfries & Galloway
Council.
Over the last 5 years the
company has been developing
its debut feature film White Male
Heart. The £2.3 million UK/
Swedish co-production is the
first screenplay by the Olivier
award winning playwright David
Harrower and will be directed by
Peter Mackie Burns. Starring the
internationally acclaimed Golden
Globe and BAFTA-nominated
actor Cillian Murphy (28 Days
Later, The Wind that Shakes
the Barley, Sunshine), the film
depicts the violent disintegration
of the friendship between two
young deer stalkers in the remote
Scottish Highlands.
The company has two
other features in financed
development: Heritage by
Nicola McCartney focusing on
the sectarian tensions between
Canadian immigrants during
Word War I, and Shell by writer
and director Scott Graham about
a young woman trying to escape
from her isolated fuel stop in the
Highlands of Scotland.
Contact:
David Smith, Managing Director / Rosie Crerar, Junior Producer
Brocken Spectre
The Producers Centre
61 Holland Street, Glasgow, G2 4NJ
T: +44 (0) 141 287 9224
F: +44 (0) 141 287 9513
E: [email protected] / [email protected]
General enquiries email: [email protected]
W: www.brocken-spectre.com
In 2008, David Smith was
Associate Producer on Duane
Hopkins’ Film4 debut Better
Things, which premiered at
Cannes Film Festival Critics
Week.
In 2007 the company moved into
television and was one of three
companies chosen by Channel 4 to
develop a pilot for a half hour series
for Channel 4. In March 2008 they
were successful in winning this
commission and will produce their
first network drama Stacked for
Channel 4 in June 2008.
The company also runs
high quality training courses
developing the skills and
talents of the professional
industry in Scotland. In 2008
it has already run the highly
successful Weekend Production
Co-ordinator Course with awardwinning North West Training
provider Big Train. It is currently
developing a business strategy
for a Creative Training Unit
in association with the Royal
Scottish Academy of Music and
Drama.
Donkey Punch
Crab Apple Films Ltd
Crab Apple Films is the Glasgow
based production company of
Angus Lamont.
Angus has been active in the
independent film and television
sector in Scotland for more than
20 years. His credits include
television drama, documentaries
and entertainment programmes,
theatrical feature films and
short films. He produced the
Film4 feature film Late Night
Shopping and the Warp X
feature film Donkey Punch. Donkey Punch has its UK
premiere on 20 June 2008 at
Edinburgh International Film
Festival and is released in the
UK by Optimum Releasing from
18 July 2008.
Crab Apple is currently seeking
finance for Clever, a teen thriller,
written by Rob Fraser, David
Bloom and Jim Gillespie, and
to be directed by Jim Gillespie.
Clever tells the story of Tom
Dawson, who hopes to achieve
many things when he leaves
home and starts his first term
at University. He’s expecting to
challenge himself and push his
boundaries, mentally, physically
and socially. What he didn’t
expect was the growth of a
twisted relationship with an
extraordinary fellow student
and a lone fight for the lives of
hundreds.
Crab Apple has a number of
other projects in development.
The Darkest Hour is a black
comedy, written by David Greig.
This project is about a hit man,
caught between the demands
of his employers and his heart
when he saves a young woman
from committing suicide, and is in
development with Film4 and the
UK Film Council.
The Young Ambassadors is a
coming of age comedy, written
by John Maclaverty which is
in development with Scottish
Screen. A 15-year-old boy on the
remote Scottish island of Islay
has his life thrown into turmoil by
a French exchange student.
Contact:
Angus Lamont
Crab Apple Films Ltd
43 Moray Place
Glasgow G41 2DF
T: +44 (0) 7973 503 264
E: [email protected]
Sikeside is in development with
Warp X and is written by Jack
Lothian and Mark Millar and will
be directed by John Hardwick. A
gang of housing estate vampires
may be saved from extinction
when they accidentally recruit a
new member. Wes Craven meets
Ken Loach.
Skeletons
EDGE CITY FILMS
Founded by Paul Welsh in
2002, Edge City Films has built
its reputation for discovering
and developing exciting new
voices in UK cinema through
award-winning projects including
DigiCult (GMAC, Scotland) and
Heartlines (EM Media, East
Midlands).
Drawing on practical and creative
relationships established over the
last six years, Edge City Films
has now started to assemble
a pool of emerging talent with
the commitment and ideas
necessary to make the step to
feature length work. In addition
to this new talent, Edge City
Films has a number of higher
budget films in the development,
packaging or financing stages,
with established international
talent attached, adding further
prestige and volume to an
exciting feature slate.
Lore, is a drama with a proposed
budget of $7m, based on Rachel
Seiffert’s Dark Room (Booker
Prize nominee). Separated
from their Nazi parents, Lore
leads her brothers and sisters
home across Germany at the
end of the second world war, a
journey which challenges every
notion they hold of family, love
and friendship. Lore is written
by Cate Shortland and Robin
Mukherjee and will be directed
by Cate Shortland. Liz Watts
from Porchlight Films (Sydney)
is co-producing whilst Margaret
Matheson (Bard Entertainment)
is Lore’s UK Executive Producer.
50 Days North is a drama with
a proposed budget of $4m.
Written by Paul Welsh and
developed with Scottish Screen,
the project is seeking a director
and co-producer. Tracked across
the wilderness by his sister,
haunted by his mother and ailing
father, a self-destructive climber
searches for a stranger lost in
the mountains of North West
Scotland.
Pincushion is an adult drama
with a proposed budget of
$1m. Thirteen-year-old Iona
Contact:
Paul Welsh, Managing Director, Producer
Edge City Films
39 Lansdowne Crescent
Glasgow G20 6NH
T: +44 (0) 141 339 0109
M: +44 (0) 7980 740 912
E: [email protected]
W: www.edgecityfilms.co.uk
gets bullied and turns to sex for
comfort, gaining a reputation
for taking “more pricks than a
pin cushion”. Keely teaches
Iona a lesson by subjecting
her to a horrific assault. This
prompts Iona’s mum to punish
Keely in a way she will never
forget. Deborah Haywood is the
writer/director, and this is being
developed with Anthem Films
and EM Media.
Skeletons is an offbeat comedy
feature inspired by writer/
director Nic Whitfield’s popular
shorts, Skeletons (2005) and
Rebecca (2007). This project is
being developed with Forward
Films and EM Media and has
a proposed budget of $1.5m.
Eddie and Andy specialise
in helping people clean the
skeletons out their closets. It’s a
private service that helps people
move ahead in their relationships
and their lives. But skeleton work
has its side effects.
The Practicality of Magnolia
Hopscotch Films
Hopscotch Films specialises in
high quality documentary, arts,
drama and film production. The
company was established in
1999 and the directors are
John Archer, Clara Glynn and
Charlotte Wontner. The company
has offices in Glasgow and
London.
Hopscotch Films focuses on
forming alliances to work with
other creatives in Scotland and
beyond. They have a strong
history of bringing in and
developing new talent. Their
experience enables them to
support talent to do their best
work for Hopscotch Films.
Hopscotch Films has a strong
track-record in quality factual
television production for the
BBC and Channel 4 including
the Cinema Iran series with
two documentaries and film
introductions for Channel 4;
the landmark documentary
series Writing Scotland and
Scots for the BBC; and Detox
or Die, a compelling personal
documentary on beating heroin
addiction on BBC1’s One Life.
Hopscotch Film’s drama output
includes 14 short films. In 2006
they completed their first feature,
the £2.8 million horror film The
Sick House, distributed by New
Line in the United States.
Many of Hopscotch’s productions
have won awards: documentary
The Drowned Village was
nominated for a Royal Television
Society award; Unscrew won
best female director at the
Grenada Film Festival in Spain;
It’s Not You, It’s Me was a
runner up for the Turner Classic
Movie Award; A Fairy Story
was selected for Cannes; The
Practicality of Magnolia won
two Scottish BAFTAs; Detox or
Die won a Gold Medal at the
New York Film Festival; Black &
White was awarded Best Short
Documentary at the European
Independent Film Awards, with
its director, Zam Salim being
shortlisted in the Grierson
Awards 2007; and documentary
When Chapelcross Towers
Contact:
John Archer, Managing Director
Hopscotch Films
Caledonian Arthouse, 752-756 Argyle Street
Glasgow G3 8UJ
T: +44 (0) 141 221 2828
M: +44 (0) 7710 344 508
F: +44 (0) 141 221 2929
E: [email protected]
W: www.hopscotchfilms.co.uk
Came Down won Best Factual
Programme earlier this year at
the Royal Television Society
Awards, North East.
Hopscotch is currently in preproduction on The Sea Change,
a dramatic thriller set on the
West Coast of Scotland. They
are also working with Jeremy
Weller and Caroline Films
to produce Ana with Susan
Sarandon, and intend shooting
a pilot this autumn. In factual
their major current project is
The Story of Film with Mark
Cousins; funding from Scottish
Screen enabled them to shoot a
pilot section in China this March.
40% of the funding is in place
from Canada, and they have
gathered interest elsewhere
in the world and are having
positive discussions with UK
broadcasters and funders.
Hopscotch is also working on a
slate of television drama projects
with producer Carolynne Sinclair
Kidd.
Ujbaz Izbeneki Has Lost His Soul
KO LIK FILMS
Ko Lik Films has recently
completed Glendogie Bogey, a
half-hour stop-frame animation
for BBC Scotland featuring the
popular characters of Jeff and
Thurston. Glendogie Bogey is the
sequel to the BAFTA-nominated
Haunted Hogmanay, which was
broadcast on New Years Eve
2006. Ko Lik Films is currently in
development on several projects.
These include a feature-length
third installment of Jeff and
Thurston’s adventures for BBC
Scotland, as well as several film
and television projects in both
live action and animation.
Ko Lik’s previous short film,
Ujbaz Izbeneki Has Lost His
Soul has continued to build
on its already considerable
success. As well as selling well
to international broadcasters,
the film has featured at scores
of festival screenings, picking
up more international awards
and nominations for the studio,
including selection for the public
vote for the British Animation
Awards. It was also included in
Contact:
Cameron Fraser / Neil Jack
Ko Lik Films Ltd
75 Trafalgar Lane
Edinburgh, EH6 4DQ
T: +44 (0) 131 553 4494
F: +44 (0) 131 553 4494
E: [email protected]
W: www.kolik.co.uk
the 9th Annual Animation Show
Of Shows, which features the
best new international animation.
So far, Ujbaz Izbeneki Has Lost
His Soul has featured at 23
private screenings hosted by
Dreamworks Animation, Pixar,
Big Rock at the Skywalker
Ranch, Industrial Light & Magic,
Sony Imageworks, Walt Disney
Feature Animation, Disney
Television Animation, HBO, Apple
Computers, Creative Artists
Agency and several of the USA’s
most prestigious animation
schools. It also screened at the
prestigious Slamdance Film
Festival and won Best Animation
at the Austin Film Festival, where
Ko Lik had already won Best
Animation with its multi-awardwinning short film The Tree
Officer.
The Tree Officer has sold to TV
stations around the world and
won several international awards
including Best Animation at
the Academy Award qualifying
Nashville Film Festival and
has screened at hundreds of
international festivals. The Tree
Officer is the most requested film
in Scottish Screen’s extensive
library of short films.
Ko Lik Films continue to develop
a range of animation and live
action projects for both film and
television. The company is
currently working with a range
of co-production partners across
Europe.
One Life Stand
LA BELLE ALLEE
La Belle Allee Productions is
a Scottish based production
company established in 2003
to make high quality feature
films and television drama for
the international market. Based
in Glasgow, with a core staff of
four, the company is headed by
award-winning producer Karen
Smyth, whose films include,
Tinseltown bought by the
Samuel Goldwyn Company, and
One Life Stand the first ever
digital feature to screen publicly
in the UK, and winner of nine
international festival awards,
including Best Achievement
in Production at the British
Independent Film Awards.
The company has also produced
television drama and several
fiction shorts, all of which have
performed well at festivals.
They have also produced a 15
episode 30 minute series for
the Discovery channel, and
co-produced a feature film for
ZDF called Secret of The Stars
starring Ulrich Muhle (The Lives
of Others).
Contact:
Karen Smyth
La Belle Allee Productions Ltd
61 Holland Street, Glasgow, G2 4NJ
T: +44 (0) 141 287 9668
F: +44 (0) 141 287 9577
E: [email protected]
W: www.labelleallee.com
La Belle Allee is currently in
production on the £3.7 million
Danish/UK feature film Valhalla
Rising, directed by Nicolas
Winding Refn (Pusher, Fear
X), which will shoot wholly in
Scotland. The company currently
has a number of feature films
in development, including ACE
(Ateliers du Cinéma Européen)
projects Still Life in Blue;
Bender, a co-production with
Ireland’s Samson Films; Safe
Harbour, a psychological thriller;
The Ebb Tide, a co-production
with Films du Requin; and a
slate of low budget horror films
including The Monastery, The
Clearance, Elemental and The
Murder Tapes.
The company is actively seeking
co-production partners for a
number of the projects on its
slate with commercial potential
and international appeal.
The New Ten Commandments
LansDowne Productions
Lansdowne Productions is an
award-winning independent
production company that
specialises in creative
documentaries for the national
and international market. With
existing relationships with
broadcasters and distributors
across Europe and the USA,
Lansdowne Productions makes
creative documentaries for both
cinema and television.
Managing Director, Nick Higgins
is a graduate of the EuroDoc and
Archidoc programmes, and an
active member of the European
Documentary Network. Recent
credits include Women in Black,
Hidden Gifts: The Mystery of
Angus MacPhee, Mentiras and
A Massacre Foretold.
Currently in production is The
New Ten Commandments, a
105-minute documentary, which
will receive its world premiere
at Edinburgh International Film
Festival 2008. To celebrate the
60th anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights,
Lansdowne Productions and the
Scottish Documentary Institute
have gathered together some of
the most talented filmmakers and
visual artists based in Scotland
today.
United by a single theme –
Human Rights in Scotland – the
film communicates a variety of
artistic visions whilst exploring
the real life stories of those for
whom the Universal Declaration
has intimate meaning. With
testimony of human rights
abuses sitting alongside tales
of human rights recognition,
the film is both an emotionally
powerful journey and an exercise
in passionate filmmaking of the
highest calibre.
The directors of the individual
films are: Doug Aubrey, Sana
Bilgrami, Mark Cousins, Kenny
Glenaan, Douglas Gordon,
Nick Higgins, Anna Jones, Alice
Nelson, David Graham Scott,
Tilda Swinton and Irvine Welsh.
World sales and distribution are
available.
Contact:
Nick Higgins
Lansdowne Productions Ltd
35 Lansdowne Crescent
Glasgow G20 6NH
Scotland UK
T: +44 (0) 141 334 2480
M: +44 (0) 7876 498 853
W: www.lansdowneproductions.co.uk
In development, supported
by Scottish Screen and the
European MEDIA development
programme, is a 90 minute
documentary, Future Cultures,
co-produced by Article Z
(France). The film is an
international exploration of what
the cultures of the future may
look like. For some life may
be short, for others a world of
fantasy and for a privileged few,
life may be forever. A compelling
and intimate investigation of what
it means to be human in the 21st
century.
Trouble Sleeping
Makar Productions
Makar Productions is an
independent film company,
which intends to build on its
growing reputation as a producer
of quality films by continuing
to develop challenging, edgy
projects whilst at the same time
extending its reach into more
obviously popular productions.
Blind Flight, directed by John
Furse and starring Ian Hart and
Linus Roache, was distributed
theatrically in the UK and Ireland
and several other territories
throughout the world. It screened
at film festivals worldwide and
garnered the Best Actor Award
for Ian Hart at the Tribeca Film
Festival in New York. The film
also received nominations from
BAFTA, IFTA and the British
Independent Film Awards. Blind
Flight was an international
co-production with Samson
Films (Ireland) and Parallax
Independent (UK).
True North was directed by
Steve Hudson, and stars Peter
Mullan, Martin Compston, Gary
Lewis and Stephen Robertson.
It screened to considerable
acclaim at the 2006 Toronto
Film Festival where it was
given five screenings. The film
was nominated for four BAFTA
Scotland awards, and won Best
Film at the Cherbourg, Celtic,
Pamplona and Ourense Film
Festivals. True North was an
international co-production with
Samson Films (Ireland) and Ariel
Films (Germany).
Makar completed production of a
low-budget feature film Trouble
Sleeping in January 2008. This
moving drama tells the story of
Muslim refugees in Scotland
and was a co-production with
Theatre Workshop in Edinburgh.
Using a professional crew, the
film was largely cast with real
life refugees, and is in Arabic
and English. Trouble Sleeping
won Best New Work at the 2008
BAFTA Scotland New Talent
Awards and will premiere at the
2008 Edinburgh International
Film Festival.
Makar has a number of projects
in development. Outcast will
be the debut feature of Colm
McCarthy (Murphy’s Law, The
Tudors, Spooks) and is a coproduction with Fantastic Films
of Ireland. It is a supernatural
thriller, which will star James
Nesbitt and Kate Dickie. Makar
is now raising the finance for
production in 2008.
Makar shot a trailer for Child of
Air, a ghost story, in December
2007 on location in Scotland.
Child of Air is a haunting story of
love, betrayal and the dangerous,
lingering taste of guilt, which will
Contact:
Eddie Dick, Makar Productions
23 Parkhead Avenue, Edinburgh, EH11 4SF
E: [email protected]
be directed be Patrick Harkins.
The cast includes Jamie Sives,
Kate Dickie, Eileen McCallum
and the exciting newcomer, Jess
Brown Findlay. Discussions are
taking place with sales agents
with a view to begin financing the
feature.
Also in development, All
Summer, I Thought of You has
been written and will be directed
by Eleanor Yule (Blinded).
A powerful combination of
thriller and psychological
drama: fate, memory and love
have inextricably linked three
characters. By the end, one will
be dead and the other two will
have done things for love which
will live with them for the rest of
their lives.
The Jitters is a straightforward
horror film by writer/director Mike
Barnes. Cassie is a teacher who
discovers, literally, that life can
be hell; The Jitters will be a lowbudget genre film shot entirely on
location in Scotland.
Victory is a Howard Barker
play and Howard will write the
screenplay. Victory is a blistering
restoration tragi-comedy about
a widow who is trying to recover
the bones of her husband at the
time of the restoration of Charles
II. The film version of Victory will
star Tilda Swinton.
Night People
MEAD KERR
Mead Kerr is a BAFTA awardwinning Edinburgh based
production company combining
the talents of writer/director
Adrian Mead and producer
Clare Kerr specialising in feature
length and TV drama. Previous
films include Cineworld BAFTA
Scotland Audience Award winner
Night People.
Mead, produced by Clare Kerr,
and developed with MEDIA II
and Scottish Screen funding.
New Year is about a New York
pop diva and her PA, who are
transported back to 13th century
Scotland. They must get home
before the next new moon or
be burned as witches… then a
handsome Highlander appears.
Mead Kerr has a number of
feature projects on their slate.
Faith is a supernatural thriller,
directed by Adrian Mead,
written by Sophie McCook, and
produced by Clare Kerr. It tells
of the aftermath of a devastating
car crash; Tam awakes to find
he has become a kind of ghost
trapped outside his body, which
is attached to life support in
the intensive care unit. The
only person Tam seems able
to communicate with is his
seven-year-old daughter, Faith.
Unfortunately Faith died two
weeks earlier. Kevin McKidd is
attached to this project.
Hydro Boys is a period
adventure, written and directed
by Adrian Mead and produced
by Clare Kerr. Hydro Boys is
Scotland’s own Wild West story.
Lured by wages of four times
the national average, thousands
of post-war Europe’s lost and
discarded souls headed into the
mountains of Scotland to work on
the massive hydro electric dam
building projects. Some would
find themselves, others would
reinvent themselves, and some
would not survive.
New Year is a time travelling
adventure, written by Adrian
Contact:
Clare Kerr, producer / Adrian Mead, writer/director
T: +44 (0) 131 554 439
E: [email protected]
W: www.meadkerr.com
JCN16
RAINDOG LIMITED
Raindog is the independent
production company born out
of the award-winning Raindog
Theatre Company. Having
produced 13 major theatre
productions and 2 highly
acclaimed short films in 9 years,
the company began developing
work for film and television. The
company has always employed
a collaborative improvisation
development technique, bringing
actors together with writers
and directors in work-shopped
rehearsals. The company has
earned a reputation for producing
high quality and innovative work
with new and emerging talent,
which produces drama unlike any
other, particularly attractive to a
young audience.
The company was successful in
securing a network commission
with its first project developed
for television, the award-winning
Tinsel Town. In a joint venture
with Scott Meek’s independent
production company Deep
Indigo, Raindog went on to
produce 2 x ten-part series with
BBC Scotland for BBC2. Tinsel
Contact:
Stuart Davids, Raindog Limited
52 Otago Street, Glasgow G12 8PG
T/F: +44 (0) 141 579 1680
Email: [email protected]
Town was a critical success,
consistently performed with its
viewing figures and garnered
Raindog several BAFTA awards.
In 2006 the company were
commissioned by BBC Scotland
to produce Britain’s first everteenage drama solely for the
internet. JCN16 was a reactive
and improvisational-based series
transmitted over 3 months in 36
episodes.
The company are now producing
Wasted their first feature
film based on their critically
acclaimed stage production of
the same name. Wasted is an
uncompromising and gritty film
about two 17-year-old street
working prostitutes, Connor and
Suzanne. Wasted is written and
directed by Caroline Paterson
and Stuart Davids, and is
produced by Wendy Griffin, with
David Hayman as Executive
Producer. The cast includes
Kate Dickie, Gary Lewis, Paul
Thomas Hickey, David Hayman,
and David McKay. Wasted is
funded by Scottish Screen, BBC
Scotland and Glasgow Film
Office.
Raindog is also developing
The Cutting Room, a screen
adaptation of Louise Welsh’s
critically acclaimed novel, written
by Andrea Gibb and directed
by Stuart Davids, with Gillian
Berrie as Executive Producer.
The Cutting Room is a tense,
dark thriller with an intriguing,
eccentric, witty, and sometimes
outrageous, protagonist.
Rilke, an auctioneer in his 40s
catalogues the homes of recently
deceased looking for anything of
value, always intigued with the
objects that people choose to
keep and cherish, the emotional
detritus of lives lived and lost. In
The Cutting Room, he is at the
epicentre of a story that is both
surreal and supernatural, full of
unexpected twists and turns, and
hugely compelling.
Man Dancin’
SALTIRE
Saltire Films was set up in 2000
by Peter Barber-Fleming to
produce quality documentaries
and drama in the UK and abroad.
The company has produced a
raft of TV documentaries and
drama docs, focusing on human
interest stories – historical and
educational. Saltire has nurtured
an extensive slate of feature film
projects and television drama.
The company’s first feature, Man
Dancin’, written by Sergio Casci
and directed by Norman Stone
was shown at Cannes 2003 and
had a worldwide distribution deal.
The Cone Gatherers by writer,
Robin Jenkins (screenplay
by Bernard MacLaverty)
and director Michael CatonJones is in the late stages of
development. The company are
also working closely with Gregory
Burke, writer of Black Watch, on
his first screenplay.
Saltire’s aim is to build on
the quality of its productions.
The company is determined
to work with a wide range of
broadcasters and explore new
areas of the film and television
markets – both UK and
international.
FEATURE FILMS:
Man Dancin’
Saltire’s first feature film, directed
by Norman Stone and written by
Sergio Casci, released February
2004.
FILMS IN DEVELOPMENT:
The Cone Gatherers
A psychological drama set in
the pine forests of Scotland
during World War II. Bernard
MacLaverty adapted the
screenplay from Robin Jenkin’s
classic novel.
The Golden Thread
(working title)
Gregory Burke’s follow-up to
Black Watch is full of humour,
warmth and pathos – a close-knit
group of Scottish soldiers return
from war in Iraq and attempt
to adjust to civilian life, with
unexpected consequences.
Contact:
Saltire Films & Television Productions
5 Queens Crescent
Glasgow G4 9BW
T: +44 (0) 141 332 3326
F: +44 (0) 141 332 3327
E: [email protected]
W: www.saltirefilms.co.uk
Rounding Up Donkeys
SIGMA FILMS
Established in 1996, Sigma
Films is one of the most prolific
independent film production
companies in Scotland. The core
team work on the development,
production and post production
of Scottish feature films as well
as international co-productions.
Sigma has a proven track
record in identifying and
nurturing emerging creative
talent, securing development
and production finance, and
producing commercially
appealing independent cinema.
The team founded and are based
at Film City Glasgow, Scotland’s
first studio and post production
facility that houses the UK’s first
Dolby Premiere studio. Sigma
has a successful co-production
track record with Zentropa that
is built primarily on a shared
creative vision and supported by
strong financial sense.
Feature Films produced by
Sigma include: Last Great
Wilderness, Dogville, Wilbur
(Wants to Kill Himself), Dear
Wendy, Brothers, Young
Adam, Red Road, After The
Wedding, Hallam Foe, and
Personnel.
Sigma are currently in post
production with Rounding Up
Donkeys, a black comedy
written by Colin McLaren,
directed by Morag McKinnon,
produced by Anna Duffield
and Gillian Berrie with Sisse
Graum Jorgensen as Executive
Producer. It is a co-production
between Sigma Films and
Zentropa 5 APS and the second
film in the Advance Party triology,
of which Andrea Arnold’s Red
Road was the first. Rounding Up
Donkeys stars James Cosmo,
Brian Pettifer, Kate Dickie, Martin
Compston, Natalie Press, and
Natasha Watson. It tells the story
of Alfred, who is 64. He’s lost
touch with his family and a threat
to his health makes him realise
he wants to make amends. The
more he tries to do right, the
more he does wrong, and as his
past comes back to haunt him,
he is forced to face up to what
his life means to him. Trust Film
Sales are handling the sales.
Sigma has a number of projects
in development. The Ordinary
is a psychological horror written
by Peter Jinks (Hallam Foe),
directed by David Mackenzie,
produced by Gillian Berrie
and developed with Scottish
Screen. Following the sudden
death of the Vatican’s chief
exorcist, Father McCartney must
investigate a famous nun who
claims that the devil is coming to
Contact:
Gillian Berrie / Anna Duffield
Sigma Films, Film City Glasgow, 4 Summertown Road, Glasgow G51 2LY
T: +44 (0) 141 445 0400 F: + 44 (0) 141 445 6900
W: www.sigmafilms.com
Rome. So what’s he scared of?
Swung is a drama written by
Ewan Morrison, with the same
creative team as above, and
again developed with Scottish
Screen. It started as a joke.
Looking at swinging sites
online, telling each other erotic
fantasies. But gradually the
fantasy becomes real and David
and Alice find themselves testing
the limits of their love as they
are thrust into the heart of the
Scottish swinging scene.
Beers, Steers & Queers
is a drama, written by Luke
Sutherland and produced by
Gillian Berrie. Nudging 51, Moira
Tait has been unlucky in love to
say the least. Her 30-year-old
mentally-challenged daughter,
Angela, has been unluckier
still. But all that is set to change
when the loves both women
crave come knocking in the
unlikely forms of an ex-skinhead
ice cream man and a recentlybereaved, sexually-confused
fifteen-year-old schoolboy.
As these two burgeoning
relationships turn the lives of
all concerned upside down, the
waves they make surge with
devastating force into the lives
of others in a tiny Highland
community.
Shoebox Zoo
SYNCHRONICITY FILMS
Synchronicity Films is a dynamic
drama production company,
creating distinctive intellectual
scripted property for UK and
worldwide audiences. The
company is represented in the
US by one of the top five major
talent agents, United Talent
Agency, and in the UK via The
Agency and Independent Talent
Group.
Founders Claire Mundell and
Justin Molotnikov are a multiaward winning, experienced
creative team. From a standing
start less than two years ago
Synchronicity has established a
growing reputation for bold and
distinctive ideas.
Synchronicity is well versed in
co-production and has been
commissioned by the Canadian
Broadcasting Commission to
adapt the classic novel White
Fang into a TV movie and family
series. Claire and Justin are cowriting the script.
Synchronicity is currently in
production with Rise, a feature
film, written by David Dilley
and James Marsh (The King),
who also directs. The film is a
co-production with The Bureau
and Bertrand Faivre and Kate
Ogborn are producing alongside
Synchronicity. Rise is the story
of Rennie, who is part of a group
of young offenders being taken
on a mountaineering trip in the
Highlands as a reward for good
behaviour. Rennie, bullied and
abused by his peers and Lamb,
the authoritarian head of the
Institute finds an unexpected
ally in Macreath, a newly arrived
inmate who is the true alpha
male of the group. When a
shocking act of violence occurs,
Rennie decides to use the
occasion to create a new future
for himself.
Synchronicity is currently
seeking finance for Crying with
Laughter, a semi-improvised
feature film directed by Justin
Molotnikov and co-produced
by Synchronicity Films with
Wellington Films, producers
of the award-winning and
critically acclaimed micro-budget
thriller London to Brighton.
Crying with Laughter is a tense
psychological thriller with a dark
comic touch. It’s a film about
memory, and centres around
a shared childhood abuse
incident which one character,
Joey, can’t remember and the
other, Frank, can’t forget. Crying
with Laughter will integrate
experimental improvisational
techniques with more traditional
narrative methods to result in a
truly groundbreaking storytelling
Contact:
Claire Mundell / Justin Molotnikov
Synchronicity Films Ltd, 227 West George Street, Glasgow G2 2ND
T: +44 (0) 141 568 7158/9 F: +44 (0) 141 568 7114
W: www.synchronicityfilms.co.uk
methodology. The budget is
£375k and is under consideration
by Scottish Screen and EM
Media.
Synchronicity has a number of
projects in development. The
Women of Lockerbie is a drama
relating a moving story of love,
loss and grief surrounding the
aftermath of Pan Am 103’s fateful
crash over Lockerbie. The film
is based on the multi-award
winning play of the same title by
New Jersey playwright, Deborah
Brevoort, and is adapted by
Andrea Gibb.
The Brotherhood of the
Book is a classic, international
family feature film of scale.
It is a magical fusion of live
action with state-of-the-art CGI
animation, the movie is based
on the tremendous success
of the £8.5m, award-winning
26 part international TV series
– co-production for the BBC,
BBC Worldwide and CBC. The
Brotherhood of the Book is the
first in an intended franchise of
related family films, built around
the mythology of the Shoebox
Zoo brand. The project is written
by Brian Ward, with director to
be attached and has a proposed
budget of $40m - $60m.
Seachd - The Inaccessible Pinnacle
YOUNG FILMS
Christopher Young trained as
a film editor before setting up
Young Films, an independent film
production company, in 1986.
He has produced six feature films
to date including Venus Peter,
Gregory’s Two Girls and the
BIFA and BAFTA award-winning
Festival. Last year Young Films
produced gaelic film Seachd
- The Inaccessible Pinnacle.
Shot on the Isle of Skye with a
cast of non-professional actors,
Seachd is the debut feature from
director Simon Miller, and is the
first gaelic feature to secure
mainstream distribution. It was
nominated for several BAFTAs
and has been shown at festivals
around the world.
Young Films has several
film projects in development,
including a short with writer/
director Paul Wright to be
produced by Rhianna Andrews;
a feature film comedy from The
Inbetweeners’ writers Iain Morris
and Damon Beesley; feature film
The Boat, with award-winning
Scottish playwright Iain Finlay
MacLeod; and The Strangest
Thing, written by John Milarky
with director Jim Sheridan
attached. The company is based
in the Isle of Skye and Glasgow.
Young Films recently produced
two television programmes; The
Smallest Game in Town, a
one-off comedy for Channel 4,
and The Inbetweeners, a sixpart series about four teenagers
growing up in suburbia. Written
by Iain Morris and Damon
Beesley, The Inbetweeners is
the first-ever original UK sitcom
commission for E4.
Prague, 1992
Written and directed by Ian Sellar
Cast: Alan Cumming, Sandrine
Bonnaire, Bruno Ganz
Venus Peter, 1989
Written by Chris Rush, Ian Sellar;
directed by Ian Sellar
Cast: Ray McAnally, Sinead
Cusack, David Hayman
Gregory’s Two Girls, 1998
Written and directed by
Bill Forsyth
Cast: John Gordon Sinclair,
Maria Doyle Kennedy,
Dougray Scott
Contact:
Chris Young / Rhianna Andrews
T: +44 (0) 1471 844 444 / +44 (0) 141 221 6272
E: [email protected]
W: www.youngfilms.co.uk
The Final Curtain, 2002
Written by John Hodge; directed
by Patrick Harkins
Cast: Peter O’Toole, Aiden Gillan,
Adrian Lester
Festival, 2005
Written and directed by Annie
Griffin
Cast: Steve Mangan, Daniela
Nardini, Chris O’Dowd, Lucy
Punch
Seachd - The Inaccessible
Pinnacle, 2007
Written by MacNiceal,
MacDonald, MacLeod, Miller,
Cockwell; directed by Simon
Miller
Cast: Pàdruig Morrison,
Aonghas Padraig Caimbeul
The Inbetweeners, 2008
Written by Iain Morris and
Damon Beesley; directed by
Gordon Anderson
Six part comedy series
commissioned by E4.
Daddy’s Girl
YOUNG MIRACLE FILMS
Young Miracle Films’ creative
team, Irvine Allan and John
Maley, have been working
together in Scotland for 15
years and are multi-award
winners, including the Prix de
Jury at Cannes for the short film,
Daddy’s Girl. The company’s
work has been recognised
internationally at film festivals
around the globe. Irvine was
sponsored as a Filmmaker
of Tomorrow at Telluride Film
Festival, by Larry Simpson of
Larry Simpson Productions, Los
Angeles.
The company currently has three
feature films at different stages
of development with Scottish
Screen and co-production
partners.
The Listen is a live action
feature film, written by John
Maley, directed by Irvine Allan,
produced by Patrick Cassavetti,
Greenpoint Films (Brazil, Mona
Lisa, Time Bandits, Emma,
Intimacy and Fear and Loathing
in Las Vegas). It is being
developed with Scottish Screen
Contact:
Irvine Allan
18 Eastfield
Joppa
Edinburgh EH15 2PN
T: +44 (0) 131 249 5108
E: [email protected]
and is close to completing
finance. The film, to be Irvine
Allan’s debut feature, will shoot in
late autumn this year and casting
is underway. This tough, funny,
poignant, urban thriller blows
the lid on the trade on drugs and
people.
Young Miracle Films is currently
seeking finance on Raise you
a Hundred (formerly entitled
The Runner), a coming of age
drama written by Irvine Allan
and John Maley, directed by
Irvine Allan, and produced by
Margaret Matheson. The film
was developed under Scottish
Screen and BBC Films’ Fast
Forward scheme. The film
was subsequently optioned by
Margaret Matheson of Bard
Entertainments, who is now
senior producer. In the film,
romance blossoms as cultures
collide. When smart-talking
American sailors arrive on
shore in a sleepy Scottish town,
star-struck teenagers think the
leading men have stepped off the
screen of the local fleapit, and
a world weary mother, who
rediscovers herself in the arms
of a Navy chief, has to choose
between her small town life and
the promise of an escape and a
fresh start.
Currently in development with
Scottish Screen is Hope Street
Heist, written by John Maley,
produced by Irvine Allan, and
directed by Robbie Fraser. The
film is a witty Caledonian caper
movie, strong on character and
humour, which puts romance
back into robbery and the gallus
back into Glasgow. This is an
Ealing style comedy in the
tradition of The Lavender Hill
Mob.
SCOTI
LAND’s
got
talent
To
sss receive further information on
any of the companies or projects
please either get in touch with
the companies directly or contact
Scottish Screen.
Carole Sheridan
Head of Talent and Creativity
[email protected]
Robbie Allen
Development Executive
[email protected]
Leslie Finlay
Development Executive
[email protected]
Scottish Screen, 249 West George Street, Glasgow, G2 4QE, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 141 302 1700
Fax: +44 (0) 141 302 1711
E: [email protected]
www.scottishscreen.com