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If there was an award for outstanding contribution to Scottish
film by a foreigner it might be a close run thing between Hollywood
superstar Mel Gibson and a slightly rumpled Englishman with a
quiet voice, deferential manner and a big pair of glasses.
Gibson took the story of William Wallace and turned it into the
Oscar-winning Braveheart, whereas Ken Loach’s stories are
anything but epic.
Gibson made a film about a national hero, Loach about a recovering
alcoholic and his life on a Glasgow housing scheme. But My Name
is Joe also picked up a slew of awards, made a star of Peter Mullan
and boosted the career of Gary Lewis.
The electrician’s son from Nuneaton now envisages My Name
as Joe as the first part in a "Scottish trilogy" and
he could be back as early as this summer for the second instalment,
working with the same Scottish producer and writer.
Loach and Paul Laverty, the former Glasgow lawyer who scripted
Joe and Carla’s Song, are keeping tight-lipped about the
new film, though Loach says it will contain drama and humour.
Producer Rebecca O’Brien says: "It’s about some
teenagers and the nonsense teenagers get up to."
Loach produced a British cinema classic when he made a Yorkshire
teenager his central character in Kes more than 30 years ago and
the new film is bound to revive memories of Bill Forsyth’s
Gregory’s Girl as well.
"The new one is not a sequel to My Name is Joe," says
O’Brien, "but part of what Ken would describe as his
Scottish trilogy... It’s different characters." They
have not worked out a storyline for the final instalment yet.
Loach, O’Brien and their partners at Parallax Pictures in
London have been regular visitors to Scotland in recent years,
making five films here in three years at the end of the Nineties.
Loach has enthused about working in Scotland. A traditional socialist,
he said: "Everybody hates Tony Blair in Scotland, so that
cheers us up enormously... I find the people and their outlook
very sympathetic, very congenial and, by and large, they still
treat each other like human beings."
O’Brien is also working on a film adaptation of Robin Jenkins’s
novel Fergus Lamont and her Parallax partner Sally Hibbin is developing
a psychological drama called A Child of Air with the Edinburgh
producer Eddie Dick.
My Name is Joe helped spark a film boom a few years ago. There
has been a slight hiatus in recent months, but there is no shortage
of exciting projects on the horizon.
Bob Last, the Edinburgh producer who helped bring The House of
Mirth to Glasgow, is working on plans for a film of Lewis Grassic
Gibbon’s Sunset Song. And O’Brien is not the only expat
Scottish producer developing projects to shoot in the old country
- Sir Sean Connery’s LA-based production company is involved
in a new film about Mary Queen of Scots, while Douglas Rae, who
scored a surprise hit with Mrs Brown, is developing a big-budget
film about Bonnie Prince Charlie and has Jude Law lined up as
the Young Pretender.
But who else has the clout to get films made in Scotland on an
on-going basis? The following individuals and organisations are
not necessarily based in Scotland, but they have made films here
and declared an intention to go on doing so. Figures in brackets
represent the position in a similar list, compiled by the author,
in The Herald a year ago. The inaugural list appeared in the industry
magazine FreezeFrame in 1999.
This article first appeared in Scotland's Business AM newspaper
in May 2001.
Brian Pendreigh
is the author of The
Legend of the Planet of the Apes, which will be published
by Boxtree in the UK in September.
Scottish Film Industry
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