Glenn Close and Christian Slater set to shoot new film in Scotland

Hollywood stars Glenn Close and Christian Slater are to join forces to shoot a major new feature film in Scotland in the next few weeks.

Former Bond villain Jonathan Pryce is also attached to The Wife, the first film to be made by in the UK by Swedish director Bjorn Runge.

The production, will be filmed on location around the country for around six weeks, around half of which will be spent in Glasgow. Although it is based on a book set in both America and Finland, it is not known where will be depicted on screen.

Producer Piers Tempest, of Tempo Productions, said Scotland had been chosen for the location filming following the company’s experience of making a new biopic about Winston Churchill.

The forthcoming film, which will star Brian Cox and Miranda Richardson, was made on location around Scotland, including extensive shoots in both Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The Wife will focus on the relationship between an acclaimed American novelist and his wife, who has had to shed her own writing ambition to support his career.

Close will be playing Joan Castleman, who decides to leave her husband Joe, Pryce’s character, on the eve of him receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature. Her actress daughter, Annie Starke, will be playing the same role on screen.

Slater, who was previously in Scotland to star in a stage version of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, will be playing the biographer of the author who becomes the catalyst to the break-up.

The 47-year-old shot to fame starring alongside Sir Sean Connery in The Name of the Rose in 1986. Further hits included Heathers, Pump Up The Volume, True Romance and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

Close, 69, a six-time Oscar nominee best known for Fatal Attraction and Dangerous Liasions, will be shooting the film months after making her West End debut in Sunset Boulevard.

Game of Thrones star Pryce, 69, who made his movie breakthrough in Terry Gilliam’s cult hit Brazil, starred opposite Pierce Brosnan in the Bond film Tomorrow Never Days. His other films include Regeneration, Glengarry Glen Ross, Pirates of the Caribbean and Evita.

Mr Tempest said: “We had an extremely positive experience filming Churchill in Scotland and it really feels like the natural place to film The Wife. In terms of production value and crews, it ticks all our boxes.”

A spokeswoman for national film agency Creative Scotland, which is currently considering an application for funding for the film, said: “We’re delighted that The Wife will be shooting in Scotland. This marks the second major production, after Churchill, that producer Piers Tempest has located in Scotland in the past year.

“It demonstrates how ready we are to accommodate significant international film projects, how attractive and adaptable our locations are, and what a great experience filmmakers have working with our crews.”