High on the Hogg: three sinners do battle for Scots screen

FOR almost two centuries it has disturbed readers with its chilling insight into the evil that men do.

Now three different production companies are in a race to make a movie of James Hogg’s classic novel of diabolical possession: Confessions Of A Justified Sinner.

The novel was first published in 1824 by Ettrick-born Hogg and has been described by crime writer Ian Rankin, who has written one of the competing screenplays, as “one of the first serial killer thrillers”.

The author of the Rebus novels has now completed a screenplay for Peter Broughan, the producer of Rob Roy and The Flying Scotsman, about the cyclist Graeme Obree. But two other versions are also being planned about the story of a young man, Robert Wringhim who embarks on a killing spree. The first, to be called Justified, is being developed by Digby Rumsey, who directed The Red Box, an adaptation of Nevil Shute’s book, On The Beach. The second is by Mamoun Hassan, the former head of production of the British Film Institute, who now hopes to film the screenplay of the novel written by the late Bill Douglas, the celebrated director of Comrades and the trilogy of films about his childhood.

The novel – the full title is The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner: Written by Himself with a detail of curious traditionary facts and other evidence by the editor - was written by Hogg, known as ‘The Ettrick Shepherd’. He worked as a shepherd but educated himself with books borrowed from his employer and went on to become a successful writer and friend of Sir Walter Scott. He published the novel – a psychological thriller – anonymously and, although barely reviewed on publication, it has since become a crime classic.

Although the novel has inspired an opera and a recent stage production by the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh it has never been filmed in this country. Douglas, who has been described as a genius of the cinema, wrote the 88-page script shortly before his death in 1991. He had planned to cast Alex Norton, who appeared in Comrades and now stars in Taggart, as a devilish stranger, Gil-Martin.

Despite the growing appreciation of Douglas’s work – next weekend will see a celebration in his home town of Newcraighall, south-east of Edinburgh, to mark the 20th anniversary of his death – Hassan believes that Scotland’s film funders failed to support the director in life and is seeking finance from abroad. Although many of the scenes are set in Scotland, the majority of the production is likely to be filmed elsewhere.

Kenneth Munro, organiser of the Bill Douglas weekend said: “The film production of Bill Douglas’s adaptation of James Hogg’s classic moral tale must surely now be realised. Yes, there are uncomfortable moral issues revealed in the book but I think it will have a fresh significance, via the Douglas pen, as it presents uncanny contemporary resonances with our society now; holding up a mirror to the so-called ‘justified actions’ of politicians and the corporate companies in the global marketplace.

“Resources for this must be secured and ‘ring-fenced.’”

In the two decades since his death, Douglas’s four films have grown in stature and Mark Cousins, the former director of the Edinburgh Film Festival and a new 15-part history on cinema, recently described him as “the greatest Scottish film-maker”.

Hassan believes that Douglas was the perfect person to “crack” the novel. He said: “The essential style of Bill’s work does relate to Justified Sinner, which is about memory and time. Justified Sinner is a flashback, because at the beginning of the book they find this corpse and he has a document which says ‘confessions of a justified sinner’. Then the dead man tells the story. It is about time and memory and there is something very interesting about the way that Bill deals with that, which I think is very original.”

Hassan said he would like to make the film in Scotland if he can attract funding. “At the moment the budget depends on where it is going to be made. I have to tell you that we are considering shooting the film completely outside of Scotland. Not for any reason other than it would cost less. Certainly the studio work will be done outside of Scotland, but we will have to do some exteriors in Scotland.

“The director has a Scottish connection. He has a very successful film being released and it is opening in two or three different countries at the moment. If that goes well then the chances of getting money abroad will be very strong. It would be on the basis of his reputation rather than Bill’s.”

Rumsey confirmed his version of Justified Sinner was “very much alive. I am aware of two other screenplays vying for the same money,” he added. Broughan said that he was reluctant to comment until the project had been finalised.