THE
Western Isles are yet being targeted again by filmmakers
as they were in the late 1950s and early 1960s by the
Ealing Studios for Whisky Galore and Rockets
Galore.
The latest USD4 million project, coincidentally The
Rocket Post, is again to be loosely based on a true
story on an uninhabited island just 10 miles from Taransay,
the famous island base of BBC docu-soap Castaway 2000.
Fact always being stranger than fiction, however, shooting
of the romantic comedy which was due to being at the end
of next month may have to be postponed because of the
Foot and Mouth precautions. A cast of 29 is to re-enact
the doomed attempts by a German inventor in the 1930s
to get mail by rocket across the channel from mainland
Harris to the island of Scarp, off west Harris.
Sadly, Scarp, a scenic fertile island which still has
its own small church and various holiday homes, has been
generally uninhabited since 1971.
Last year's axing of the Gaelic Broadcasting Committee's
funding to Grampian TV for Gaelic news bulletins has meant
the TV company's former home is available. The growing
production team is shortly to move next door from the
Studio Alba, the custom-built drama studio, into vacant
Seaforth House on Seaforth Road in Stornoway - an asset
that the film producers have welcomed as a good omen for
the production and which could mean more internal scenes
being shot in the town.
The story they hope to tell is about a short but vital
experiment in delivering the post. On Saturday July 28,
1934, Gerhardt Zucher sent 4,800 letters at 1,000 miles
per hour in one of his rockets from Scarp to Hushinish
on the Harris mainland, only to have the whole lot explode
and scatter all over the shore.
Three days later, the disappointed inventor made another
unsuccessful attempt at the experiment from the grounds
of nearby Amhuinnsuidhe Castle, now the home of latter-day
cider king Jonathan Bulmer. That too was a disaster and
he returned to Germany where he was apparently more successful
with his rocket design ventures for Hitler's war effort.
Alison Barnett, one of the Ultimate Pictures UK Ltd producers,
claimed that big name stars were being approached for
the starring roles although they were unable to confirm
who they would be. Produced and planned for the last two
years by Mark Shorrock and David Kennaway, it is to be
a romantic comedy with a sinister element running through
it. Alison said: "There will be that dark side to
the film. You have to remember that Germany was very interested
in what Zucher was doing and they wanted to make the benefits
of anything he achieved went to them."
She said that Shorrock and Kennoway had even studied the
islands' weather forecasts and trends and decided now
was the time to move the production team north. The only
possible disruption could be the Foot and Mouth epidemic.
Although the Western Isles are clear of any cases of the
disease, and crofters' restrictions movement of stock
are even expected to be relaxed soon, it is possible that
a tightening of government regulations in rural areas
like Harris could scupper the filmmakers' timing. "What
with the unpredictable weather and the possibility of
these regulations, it is not as easy as some projects
can be."
Ultimate Pictures has advertised locally for make-up artists,
runners, dialect coaches and even for a ceilidh choreographer.
"We are also looking for two seven to 10 year old
twin boys, preferably with some acting experience, for
parts in the film. We have had no luck as yet but it is
early days and not everyone will have seen the adverts
yet," said Alison. She said that Danish actor Ullrich
Thomsen, who was in the James Bond movie The World
Is Not Enough, had accepted the part of Zucher, the
rocket man.
Meanwhile the good folk of Lewis and Harris wait to judge
whether the actors playing locals will have such outlandish
Hebridean accents which even Scots actors such as Gordon
Jackson had in Whisky Galore (which was shot on
Barra) and Ronnie Corbett had in the sequel Rockets
Galore. There will be so much filming soon that island
motorists will become as used to stopping for the shout
"Action" as they were when Scottish Television's
Gaelic soap Machair was shot there from 1992 to
1998. Also filming on Lewis and Harris just now is another
grisly, dark production by students at Edinburgh University.
Its producers chose the islands to set Am Boireannach
Bathadh (The Drowning Woman), a grim story based on an
old Irish legend featuring a conspiracy to drown a woman
accused of witchcraft. Originally thought to be from the
AranIslands of Ireland, it has been adapted to be set
in the Hebrides. The story, from the 1820s, is of an island
forcibly evacuated and will also feature documentary footage
of St Kilda, 40 miles west of the Hebrides, when it was
being evacuated on government orders in 1930.
Director Stephen Tebbutt, 31, a fourth-year student at
Edinburgh College of Art, has had experience of making
films on islands before and has made two films on Irish
Aran Islands.
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