Hooray for Hollywood... films earn Glasgow £20m

By CRAIG BROWN
Published on Monday 30 January 2012 23:58

SCOTLAND’S film industry is aiming to build on a successful year, after new figures revealed that hosting productions boosted Glasgow’s economy by £20.15 million in 2011.

The biggest contributor was the Brad Pitt zombie thriller World War Z, which took over the city’s George Square for more than two weeks during August, contributing £3.33m.

Cloud Atlas, starring Halle Berry, and Under the Skin, starring Scarlett Johansson, and the BBC drama Young James generated a combined total of £5.5m.

A further £2.2m was brought into the city by “low impact” productions – film, television and advertising – which had one or two-day shoots in the city.

Glasgow City Council leader Gordon Matheson said: “The hard work of Glasgow Film Office and all the other council staff involved with the productions that come to our city has most certainly paid off, with over £20m coming into our economy. Such a figure underlines the financial importance of attracting film, broadcast and advertising productions to Glasgow.”

With 2012 marked as the year of Creative Scotland, the arts body that took over from Scottish Screen in 2010, building on last year’s successes is paramount.

An adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s novel Filth has started filming in Glasgow, while US animation giant Pixar’s forthcoming cartoon Brave is set in Scotland, and will feature Billy Connolly, Robbie Coltrane and Kelly Macdonald.

Although both Edinburgh and Glasgow’s film departments were upbeat about their prospects and spoke of “solid slates”, neither would name upcoming productions on the grounds of commercial sensitivity.

However, Ros Davis, of Edinburgh Film Focus, said that Glasgow’s success had benefited the whole country.

She said: “The sort of publicity that came in because of World War Z and Under the Skin was immensely positive for the whole of Scotland because it sends out a strong message that the country is capable of facilitating such big projects in an extremely helpful way.

“All of the cities and countryside are very well prepared to welcome filming. We’re very joined-up and often work together. Cloud Atlas was in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and so was Under the Skin.”

Belle Doyle, locations department manager for Creative Scotland, said that the simple appearance of Scottish locations, even disguised as being in another country, on the screen could result in them being used by other productions.

She said: “People talk within the industry, and they’ll know how easy it is to get things done and what the local crews are like.”

However, she said that Scotland’s fortunes were often dictated by the strength of sterling and the incentives on offer.

Claire Mundell, co-creative director of Synchronicity Films and the driving force behind the newly-launched Mackendrick Film Fund, set up to attract investment in films with strong Scottish connections, said she hoped that Scotland’s own film industry would benefit from visiting productions.

She said: “It’s important to remember that within Scotland there are indigenous filmmakers, and hopefully some of the good fortune that comes our way with these very large studio movies coming to visit the city will be ploughed back into supporting indigenous productions.”

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One-man-bucket's older twin

Saturday, February 25, 2012 at 01:38 AM

Good for the Weegies. They needn't worry about any competition from Auld Reekie either - once we get our longed-for trams, which will restore the city to its rightful place as transport paragon of the known world, it'll be impossible to make any historical dramas here because you can't hide the overhead cables.

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DANCES WITH HAGGIS

Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 07:44 PM

@3 piedodger.... it mostly went to the Piper Pub and Gregs George square

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piedodger

Friday, February 3, 2012 at 09:46 PM

It would be nice if they published the breakdown of the money earned to see who benefited.

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The Ayrshire Bard

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 12:01 PM

All well and good, but what happened to 'Burns', the full length film of the bard that should have been on the screens by now. Gerard Butler is now too rich and famous for the part, apart from the fact that he's also far too well built and too old. This is the second time in the past few years that this film has hit the skids. Come on Mr Salmond, you were keen to see it made so why not ask what's happened to it.

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sergal

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 12:28 AM

find out more about real Scarlett by typing Scarlett Johansson clone in Google search bar and you would see much more then in The Island movie..

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