‘Scotland needs a film studio’ says Filth director

SCOTLAND’S film industry would be greatly enhanced if it had its own production studios, the director of Irvine Welsh’s new blockbuster production has claimed.

Scottish actor James McAvoy and Irvine Welsh who wrote the novel "Filth" on the film's Edinburgh set. Picture: TSPL

Jon Baird said the nat­ion already had top crews and talented actors, but suggested it needed a dedicated facility to end looking abroad for locations.

He also thanked arts funding body Creative Scotland for their support, but hinted that tax breaks north of the Border could substantially help the industry.

Filth, starring James McAvoy and a host of other Scots talent, was filmed in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Stirling, but also located to Sweden, Belgium and Germany to take advantage of tax incentives. “The subsidies we got from these different countries, we had to fulfil that by shooting there, but mainly Scotland,” he told BBC Scotland.

“Creative Scotland did support us as much as they could – they gave us the maximum investment, so we are very grateful to them. The crew we had was pretty much all Scottish. They followed us all round as well, to the different countries.

“The thing that Scotland has got is the talent, whether it is behind or in front of the camera, and what we probably could be doing with is a studio somewhere. That would be fantastic because we’ve got the people, we’ve got the talent, we just need the facilities.” But he added: “We did Scotland proud, put it like that, with how we showed it.”