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20 (-) May Miles Thomas
Job description: New Talent
Finest moment: One
Life Stand
Writer-director May Miles Thomas used her own money to finance
the low-budget feature One Life Stand. A drama about a Glasgow
single mum and her teenage son, it dominated the Bafta Scotlnad
New Talent awards, but failed to secure cinema distribution. However
Thomas has financial backing for her next film, a drama called
Solid Air, which will shoot in Glasgow later this year.
19 (20) Christopher Young
Job description: Producer
Finest moment: Making a film on Orkney about a whale when
no one was making
films in Scotland
In a single decade, Young went from newcomer, with Venus Peter,
to veteran, with Bill Forsyth’s Gregory's
Two Girls, with just one film (Prague) in between. He is based
on Skye, where no one can hear his screams. He had given a young,
unknown Andrew Macdonald a job on Venus Peter, and Macdonald repaid
the favour by hiring him as producer on The Final Curtain with
Peter O’Toole as star and a script from Trainspotting’s
John Hodge.
18 (10) John McGrath
Job description: Scotland's Robert Redford
Finest moment: Z Cars
McGrath founded the 7:84 theatre group and has a considerable
track record in theatre, television and film. Robert Redford encouraged
him to use Redford’s own Sundance workshops as a model for
Moonstone International Screen Labs, helping new directors and
writers. Moonstone and McGrath’s Freeway Films both have
offices in Edinburgh. Aberdeen, a Scottish road movie with Stellan
Skarsgard, should be out later this year, but other projects have
stuck in "development hell".
17 (-) Iain Smith
Job description: Film management
Finest moment: Putting Scotland on international cinema
screens
A veteran of the Scottish scene, Smith was location manager on
Chariots of Fire and associate producer on Local Hero. Although
he has worked on such big international films as The Fifth Element,
he has come back to Scotland at every opportunity, most recently
for Entrapment. He maintains close links with Sir Sean and will
almost certainly be involved in Mary Queen of Scots.
16 (15) John Hannah
Job description: Unlikely heartthrob
Finest moment: A funeral for a friend
The former sparkie from East Kilbride returns to cinema screens
in The Mummy Returns
and has completed another couple of feature-length TV dramas as
Edinburgh police inspector Rebus. His London-based Clerkenwell
Films makes Rebus for the ITV network and also harbours big-screen
ambitions. Projects include The Sin Garden, a Scottish thriller
scripted by Chris Brookmyre.
15 (-) Lynne Ramsay
Job description: Critics’ favourite
Finest moment: The binmen’s strike
Ramsay delighted critics with her Glasgow rites-of-passage film
Ratcatcher, though the
general public did not want to know. She has the talent and kudos
to find backers for low-budget arthouse movies, though perhaps
rising star Samantha Morton and a best-selling novel from Alan
Warner might propel Morvern
Callar to a wider audience.
14 (13) Catherine Aitken
Job description: Producer and lady in waiting
Finest moment: Mary Queen of Scots, we hope
Any producer whose slate includes a horror movie called Boo!,
with a tagline: "On Skye no one can hear you scream",
deserves to be a success. Aitken and partner Ros Borland have
a long list of projects in development, at Gabriel Films in Glasgow,
while, at Raging Star in Edinburgh, Aitken and her other partner
Gill Parry now have Connery on board for Mary Queen of Scots,
though it was thought one or two or her projects might have made
it to the shooting stage by now.
13 (8) Ewan McGregor
Job description: Star warrior
Finest moment: Still Trainspotting
Like Carlyle, McGregor’s name alone can help greenlight a
movie, but financiers want him as an actor, not a producer. Like
Carlyle, he has been busy in front of the cameras, with the next
instalment of Star Wars in the can, and a co-starring role with
Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge. Long-gestating plans for Don’t
Think Twice, a Scottish rock and roll, road movie with uncle Denis
Lawson, look like gestating for some time yet.
12 (7) Robert Carlyle
Job description: Actor of the Year
Finest moment: The Full Bobby
The former painter is in huge demand as an actor, making an indelible
impression on prestigious international projects like Angela’s
Ashes and The Beach,
and he won the best actor award in the recent Bowmore Scottish
Screen awards. But there has been little time to pursue his ambitions
as a producer, and no news on his plans to produce a "Scottish
western" or a movie about Benny Lynch.
11 (16) Bob Last
Job description: Producer
Finest moment: Bringing The
House of Mirth to Glasgow
Last managed and recorded top Eighties bands and acted as a film
music consultant, before teaming up with director Terence Davies
and X-Files star Gillian Anderson on The House of Mirth. He is
based in Edinburgh and planning an adaptation of Sunset Song with
Davies and the Edinburgh Film Festival’s Ginnie Atkinson.
He is also developing projects with Jim Gillespie, director of
I Know What You Did Last Summer, and writers Alan Spence and Alan
Warner.
Scottish Film Industry
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