Film News

2/3/12 Hit The Ground Running
Film Focus has teamed up with BECTU Vision to host the leading training programme for runners on Fri 2 March 2012. Applications are welcome from enthusiastic people, with a good knowledge of Edinburgh and the city region, who are interested in working as a runner on dramas and feature films. Candidates must be able to drive and available to work at short notice. Information and application form online at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BECTU-HTGR-EDI

11/2/12 Edinburgh hosts Britain's Got Talent
Judges Simon Cowell, David Walliams, Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon will be taking their seats in the Festival Theatre to judge the Scottish entries to this year’s Britain’s Got Talent on 11 February. Tickets are available on http://www.applausestore.com

31/3/11 Edinburgh based producer Jemma Rodgers to lead Kudos Brown Eyed Boy Scotland Venture
Kudos and Brown Eyed Boy, part of the wider Shine Group, are to launch a joint TV production venture in Edinburgh.

Both companies have worked in Scotland before but this will be the first time they've established a permanent base here.

Kudos Brown Eyed Boy Scotland aim to develop local talent, with Edinburgh chosen because of the number of playwrights and comedians living and working in the city.

The new operation will be led by Jemma Rodgers, previously head of comedy at BBC Scotland.

Chomets animated love letter to Edinburgh, The Illusionist, is nominated for Best Animated Feature Oscar
Made in Edinburgh, starring Edinburgh and now, thanks to the extra PR around the nomination, helping to showcase the beauty of Edinburgh to a wider audience internationally. DVD will be released in the UK on February 14th 2011.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHVG1JmbU30

EFF joins new Single Marketing Body for Edinburgh
City of Edinburgh Councillors have given backing to the creation of a single promotional body for Edinburgh. 'Marketing Edinburgh' will build on the existing public-private partnerships in the city and the combined strengths of Destination Edinburgh Marketing Alliance (DEMA), Edinburgh Convention Bureau (ECB) and Edinburgh Film Focus (EFF) to raise the global profile of Edinburgh as a destination in which to invest, visit, live, work, study and of course FILM.

The objective is to have the new body fully up and running by 1 April 2011 and it is 'business as usual' moving forwards.

2010 looks set to be another great year
Following on from a record breaking 2009, 2010 is also going well with John Landis in town in February filming Burke and Hare starring Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis. The film went on release in October. Still in cinemas so catch it now. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE7KvAyVnbw

David Tennent (aka 'The Doctor') was in Edinburgh in May filming Single Father, a drama for the BBC about a man struggling to raise his 4 children after the death of his wife. Man falls for wife's best friend and complications arise. Shown in October but no doubt will repeat as was well received.
View trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRls3U5O9p8

German TV drama This September filmed in the Scottish Borders at Manderston, Duns and St Abbs in the summer. This September is based on a story by Rosamunde Pilcher, a favourite storyteller of German TV viewers with this being the fourth such drama to film in Scotland in recent years.

The Awakening, a feature film starring Dominic West (Jimmy McNulty from The Wire) and Rebecca Hall has been filming in Edinburgh and the Scottish Borders. The Awakening is a sophisticated psychological-supernatural thriller set in the 1920s, with a unique twist in the tail.

Bollywood feature Mausam (aka Seasons of Love) has recently finished filming in Edinburgh and Haddington, bringing with it some heavy-weight Indian talent. Seasoned actor Pankaj Kapoor made his directorial debut with his son Shahid taking the lead.

Hollywood followed Bollywood to the city, with Anne Hathaway in Edinburgh for One Day, the feature film of David Nicholls' acclaimed novel of the same name. The story involves the complicated relationship between Emma (Hathaway) and Dexter (Jim Sturgess) who meet on the night of their college graduation and continue to reconnect on the same date for the next two decades.

Filming now
Case Histories, a six-part BBC series adapted from Kate Atkinson's compelling mysteries, will be filmed in Edinburgh over the coming months. Private investigator Jackson Brodie is to be played by Jason Isaacs of Harry Potter fame.

Seen this?
You might have missed a few of the productions that have shot in Edinburgh, the Lothians and Scottish Borders, and not all of them were ever intended for UK release. Here we list a few web sites showing clips of recent productions:

John Lewis Christmas Commercial 2010
Christmas is coming the adverts are telling us so. John Lewis Xmas advert shot in and around Edinburgh in July. http://tinyurl.com/2cr7wn6
For those that love the behind the scenes stuff, here is the making of the John Lewis Xmas advert in Edinburgh http://tinyurl.com/3afdg9r

Danny MacKaskill - Way Back Home
Danny MacAskill does it again, sponsored by Redbull. Don't do this at home and of course they asked permission of all the locations first! Edinburgh Castle, North Berwick, South Queensferry and one of the Inch Islands in the Forth. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj6ho1-G6tw

Imogène McCarthery - French feature film starring Catherine Frot, set in London and the Highlands but filmed in Edinburgh and the Scottish Borders.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TTzuCYNT9w

The Illusionist
Sylvain Chomet’s Edinburgh produced animated feature, The Illusionist which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival opened the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Demetrios Matheou writes 'The Illusionist is nothing less than an animated love letter to Edinburgh.'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHVG1JmbU30

Meerkats - The Streets of Ambitiousness
Third episode in the Meerkat saga. Bakehouse Close Edinburgh playing 'Old Moscow'.
http://film.comparethemeerkat.com/ambitiousness/

Meerkats Compare the Pentland Hills Regional Park
Were those Meerkats battling through the snow in the Pentland Hills near Edinburgh recently. Yes it was. Meerkat fans check it out.. http://film.comparethemeerkat.com/fearlessness/

Bentley Mulsanne promo - a sophisticated view of Edinburgh and the Scottish Borders. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2tPlxNtjBw

LG TV Commercial - Borderless with Birds - Directed by Dante Ariola and shot on the Bass Rock in May 2009. The ad will be seen across Europe in 2010. See online at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-cc9ff0xU0

New Town Killers - Dougray Scott and James Anthony Pearson and Alistair Mackenzie star in a hi-octane game of hide and seek with a dangerous twist through the streets of Edinburgh. Trailer online at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqahpML6VV4

Arn, the Knight Templar - the biggest budget movie ever to come out of Scandinavia, based on Jan Guillou's best-selling trilogy about the son of a high-ranking Swedish nobleman, educated in a monastery and sent to fight in the Holy Land as penance for a forbidden love. Arn filmed in the Lothians over several weeks in 2007, at locations including Seton Collegiate, Torphichen Perceptory and Craigmiller Castle. The film has been released with huge success in Scandinavia but hasn't reached the UK market yet.
http://arnthemovie.com/

Doomsday - Neil Marshall's sci-fi horror action about a deadly virus threatening to wipe out the population, was filmed on location in Blackness Castle in 2007. The film was released in UK cinemas in May 2008, but if you missed it, you can watch the trailer here:
http://www.doomsdayiscoming.com/

Almost Heaven - a Canadian production where a TV director is hired to salvage an international fishing show in Scotland, filmed in the Scottish Borders in July 2006. The film didn't get a release in the UK but rumour has it that a DVD release may be on the cards soon. Watch the trailer here:
http://www.norstarfilms.com/trailer_almostheaven.html

Sharp Aquos hi-def TV - a US ad that was filmed on location at the Glen golf course North Berwick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh1o1QtLwK4

Do you have a Press Enquiry?
Call Ros Davis, Production Liaison Manager, with questions. Tel: +44 (0)131 622 7336

Our photo gallery contains pictures from some of the sets we've been on in the Lothians & Scottish Borders.